By Our Staff Reporter
DEHRADUN, 30 Dec: Leader of Opposition Yashpal Arya alleged that the real face of the state government has come to the fore, in off-record granting to the private companies, the mining operations of Gaula, Nandhor and Kosi-Dabka. He has also questioned the proficiency of the vehicles used by these companies in mining. This would not only result in revenue loss to the state exchequer but will also hit the three lakh workers associated with forest corporation and mining work, below the belt. Such an action is a pre-cursor to all other profitable works of the state being auctioned in future, he opined.
Arya further alleged that the state government was acting in a pre-planned manner. First the fitness of mining vehicles scrutiny was handed over to private companies which have hiked up the charge to a phenomenal Rs. 20,000 from the earlier rate of Rs.1,800 and the time duration has also extended to several days. Earlier the mining work was being carried out by electronic weighbridges in accordance to the stipulations of Environment Ministry and the Mining manual which has now been discontinued by the private parties who decide royalty on the basis of quantity of material mined. He feared that this method is prone to leakages like theft and consequent loss of revenue. Being aware of these pitfalls, he wondered why the government is still acting in an evasive manner.
The Opposition leader pointed out that Haldwani’s economy for most part runs on the Gaula and other rivers and is the source of socio-economic life of Kumaon region. Presently more than 12000 vehicles are registered with the Forest Corporation for mining in these rivers and nearly three lakh families are dependent on it. He drew attention to the High Court notice regarding illegal mining and manual weighing of mined mineral mining from Gaula river. He flayed the suppression by the state administration to protests by affected people.