Nainital, 27 Aug: A petition filed against the alleged waiver of a fine of about Rs 50 crore imposed by the then District Magistrate of Nainital district of Uttarakhand on illegal stone crushers during his tenure as DM mining and storage of various stone crushers during his tenure was heard in the High Court today. In the case, a division bench comprising of Chief Justice Ritu Bahri and Justice Rakesh Thapliyal has summoned Secretary of Mining to appear before the Court with the investigation report on 3 September to explain the position of the government.
The Court was hearing a PIL in this regard filed by social activist Bhuwan Pokhariya, a resident of Chorgalia, Nainital. In his petition, Pokhariya has alleged that in the year 2016-17, the then District Magistrate of Nainital had waived a fine of about Rs 50 crore for illegal mining and storage of illegal material in various stone crushers. Pokhariya alleged that at first the fine was imposed but later this fine was waived only for those stone crushers whose fine was very high i.e. in crores of rupees by the then DM Nainital but the fines in case of crushers who had been imposed with smaller amount of fine were not waived. He further alleges that a complaint in this regard had been made to the then Chief Secretary and the then Mining Secretary but no action was taken on the complaint. Rather it was claimed that it is the privilege of the District Magistrate to impose fine or to waive it. When the petitioner sought a written reply from the government in this regard, he has not been given any written reply by the government. The petitioner also shared that he had also sought a response in this regard under RTI asking under which rule does the District Magistrate have the authority to waive the fine imposed on illegal crushers.
In response to this RTI, the Public Information Officer, Industrial Department, Uttarakhand said that the RTI plea is not admissible. The PIL adds that not satisfied with the response, he had submitted the complaint before the Chief Secretary in 2020 who had asked the Industrial Secretary to investigate it.
The Industrial Secretary appointed the Nainital District Magistrate as the investigating officer. The District Magistrate handed over its investigation to the Haldwani SDM, but the investigation has not made any progress since. Whereas, the Industrial Department had asked to submit the investigation report on this on 21 October 2020, which has not been submitted even after four years. In the PIL, the court has been asked to take action on this because it is a loss of revenue to the state exchequer.
