The issue of illegal mining rocked the House on Thursday as both the ruling Congress and Opposition BJP traded charges against one another.
Things started as BJP brought an adjournment motion on the matter. Initiating the discussion, the leader of the Opposition Ajay Bhatt lashed out at the Government, saying that rampant illegal mining was making the State coffers poorer, courtesy the Government fawning on the unauthorized miners. Chief Minister Harish Rawat stood up to defend his Government. As the debate continued the focus shifted from illegal mining to the 1962 Sino-Indian border conflict with the MlAs invoking stalwarts of the past, Pandit Nehru and Shyma Prasad Mukherjee. Nehru-Gandhi family, Kanhaiya and Kandhar figured in too, consequently blurring the matter on which the debate was initiated.
CM sought to provoke BJP, saying that it was the same BJP whose leaders had patronized illegal mining in Koshi and Dabka rivers between 2007 and 2012. BJP MlA Arvind Pandey objected, daring him to book and punish those engaged in illegal mining during the said period.
As the debate began after lunch, Ajay Bhatt alleged that for the first time in the history, illegal mining was happening along Kali river that marks the boundary between India and Nepal. “ lands within the Indian territory are being ceded to Nepal,” he said.
Slamming the State government for its connivance with the illegal miners, he said despite Tehsildar Manju Rawat being thrown into river and DFO Kalyani being attacked, no case had been registered against the illegal miners.
Banshikdhar Bhagat said that the 12th gate in Gaula river had been opened to facilitate illegal mining. He said that the gate was called Indira Gate, named after the State’s parliamentary affairs minister. Arvind Pandey said that earlier, the place where mining materials used to be released, was named after the farmers. “But now, significantly, it bears the name of a cabinet minister,” he said. “The State government keeps hoodwinking the people by conducting raids, on one hand, and giving the booked miners reliefs, on the other. This is clear from the paltry figure of Rs10 crore the Government has earned by way of slapping the illegal miners with penalties. We must remember another fact that despite the officials imposing penalty of Rs1,75 crore, the funds earned on this count stands at Rs25 lakh. These figures are enough to reveal the complicity of the government in the illegal mining menace,” he said.
Harbhajan Singh Cheema alleged that illegally mined materials were being ferried openly in overloaded vehicles, damaging the roads.
Rubbishing the allegations, CM said that hundreds of cases had been lodged and the law-enforcing agencies were engaged in wiping the menace out.
In a provoking gesture, CM asked the Opposition to explain why the revenue collection had stood at mere Rs50 crore in 2010-11 when the mining was on its peak and why it had shot up to Rs210 core in 2013-14. He said that Rs1000 crore could be earned through mining.
Spelling out his Government’s plan to stop the menace, he said they would give lease rights only to the corporations from now onwards and they would appoint independent regulators to monitor things. He asked the leader of the Opposition to suggest correctives instead of abusing the Government. Ajay Bhatt said with the government intentionally framing their MlAs in wrong cases, things were as they should be. Rawat dared Bhatt to cite a single instance of an MlA being implicated in framed-up charges.
Bhatt replied that MlA Puran Singh Fartyal along with 11 other innocents had been languishing in jails slapped with false cases. He also cited Ganesh Joshi facing the same predicament. “Police are lodging cases before they probe the matters,” he said.
Bhatt took a dig at the CM, saying that he was not acting on his earlier assurance of reviewing development in the constituencies with the opposition MlAs. “Instead of helping the MlAs, you keep threatening them into submission,” he said.