Tuesday, 26 July 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
Cornering the state government for charging arbitrary royalty in the mining sector and rampant corruption in recruitment in different departments, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Karan Mahara has demanded that a high level inquiry should be ordered in these issues. Addressing the media persons at the state headquarters of the Congress party on Monday, Mahara said that the mining department used to levy a royalty of Rs 37 per sq meter on the river bed material till 2007 which was increased to Rs 84 per sq meter from 2007 to 2012 and again in the year 2017 by the successive BJP governments. In the year 2019 the government again levied a surcharge of 25 per cent on royalty which is now a hefty Rs 245 per sq meter. He alleged that rampant illegal mining is going on in the rivers of the state and unable to control it, the state government has increased the burden on the small contractors. Demanding a high level inquiry in the recruitment of employees in the cooperative department the PCC president said that the cooperatives minister should resign so that a free and fair inquiry is conducted on the charges of corruption levelled by the contractual workers in recruitment of 61 personnel in the department. He pointed out that the voice against recruitment scam was first of all raised by the then BJP MLAs Yatiswarananda and Suresh Rathore during the tenure of Trivendra Singh Rawat as CM and the Congress leader Ganesh Godiyal had led a protest of Congress party at the state secretariat on the issue. Mahara said that the recent suspension of a secretary of cooperative department Roorkee and the allegation of corruption have proven correct. The PCC president also took strong exception to the letters released by the cabinet minister Rekha Arya to the department employees and Anganwadi workers for attending personal programmes. He said that arrests made by the Special Task Force (STF) in the recruitment scam on the VDO examination conducted by Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UKSSSC) has vindicated the stand of Congress party about gross irregularities in the examination. Questioning the decision of ruling BJP to hoist national tricolour on 20 lakh households of Uttarakhand, Mahara said that the party should inform the criteria of this selection and the reason for leaving out three lakh families from the drive. The Vice president organisation Mathura Dutt Joshi, general secretary organisation Vijay Saraswat, Navin Joshi, Garima Dasauni and others were present on the occasion.
