Saturday, 29 MARCH 2025 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The leader of opposition in Vidhan Sabha, Yashpal Arya has accused the BJP government in Uttarakhand of being immersed neck deep in corruption. He said that the issue of illegal mining raised by former chief minister and Haridwar MP Trivendra Singh Rawat in Lok Sabha on Thursday proves that the illegal mining in the State is rampant with collusion of mafia and administration.
He said that the regulations ban the use of heavy machines for mining of river bed material in the State but they are being used blatantly by those engaged in the business.
Arya said that the intervention of Uttarakhand High Court in the case of illegal chalk mining in Kanda area of Bageshwar district has exposed the apathy of the government machinery.
He alleged that the State government has handed over the task of royalty and other taxes on riverbed mining to private companies. The LoP said that the work of mining royalty collection has been outsourced to a Hyderabad based company. This company will collect royalty in the districts of Dehradun, Udham Singh Nagar, Nainital and Haridwar for a period of five years and in return will give a sum of Rs 303.52 crore to the State government.
He said that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its report, had mentioned that the State government could not recover a sum of Rs 1,386 crore as penalty on illegal mining.
