Peeved over receiving flak for its perceived failure to check increasing volume of illegal mining activities, the State Government might decide to hand over the mining sector to the private sector, said the Finance Minister, Indira Hridayesh, here on Thursday.
The mining sector is one of the primary sources of revenue for the State Government. However, the Government has reasons to worry over unauthorised mining going on in full swing across the State, particularly along the Teri region, said the Minister.
The new mining policy is on the anvil, she said, adding that the State Government is now mulling all options, including that of handing the sector over to the private companies. Streamlining the sector is the need of the hour, in the interests of revenue collection for the State, the Minister said. “The State exchequer is incurring enormous losses because of the unauthorised mining.
This aside, such activities are spawning law and order problems too. Things have come to such a grim pass that the enforcement personnel and other social activists are being targeted by the mining mafias. This state of things cannot be allowed to continue,” she said.
Notably, the Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation presently is now dealing with mining in the State.
Using the State Government’s lack of spine to deal with such activities adequately, the mining mafias and their goons are becoming law unto themselves in several parts of the State, runs the common refrain.
The Opposition BJP has demanded the State Government to formulate a comprehensive mining policy to stop unauthorised mining, on one hand, and to ensure, on the other, that the volume of revenue from this sector goes up.
Mention worthy, mining activities, particularly collection of riverbed materials, would continue till mid-June. Now, it would be seen whether the State Government is able to firm up the new mining policy this season.