CAG reveals Rs 5,000 cr mining ‘scam’ in Haryana, Congress demands judicial probe

The mining mafia active in Haryana during the previous BJP-led Khattar government has caused Rs 5,000 crore loss to the state exchequer. The 'mining scam' that took place right under the nose of Manohar Lal Khattar government has been exposed in the recent report of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) that was tabled in the state Assembly.

Taking a note of the CAG report, the Haryana Congress claimed that the CAG report has exposed the “nexus” between the Khattar government and mining contractors.

Senior Congress leaders including Kumari Selja, President, Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee and Randeep Singh Surjewala, Incharge Communication, All India Congress Committee, have demanded a probe into it by a sitting high court judge in the alleged scam.

Addressing media persons, Surjewala also highlighted the CAG) report that in which the Government auditor had reportedly detected a loss of Rs 1,476 crore in Haryana’s Mines and Geology Department because of “irregularities” in execution of its projects, he said.

Kumari Selja alleged that there was a mass bungling and loss to the state exchequer on part of collusion between politician, bureaucrats and mining mafia.

The leaders said that the construction of illegal bandhs in Yamuna river and illegal mining of sand, gravel and stone had been going on unhindered under the nose of the Khattar government.

The CAG report has exposed the Khattar government attitude by turning a blind eye towards the illegal mining and not recovering the dues from the mining contractors and over exploiting the rivers of Haryana of valuable mineral wealth.

The CAG report has exposed a number of sensational illegal acts like changing the course of the rivers for illegal mining, open loot of minerals. These acts need to be brought in the open before the public, they say.

According to the leaders say the CAG report says the Khattar Government doesn’t know how many mines have been auctioned and ow much mineral deposits are there in 95 mines, which can be extraced. The government has no record of transportation of minerals made by the contractors nor it has a record of transport permits for minerals.

The government did not recover R's 1476.21 crore from the mining contractors and put the State to this heavy loss by its inaction, the report says. What could be a greater proof of collusion of the government and the mineral contractors that the state did not recover Rs 1158.84 crore of installments and interest from 69 mining contractors.

So much so the BJPovernment had forgotten to recover Rs 66.74 crore from mining contractors on account of Mines And Mineral Rehabilitation Fund.

The leaders said that the CAG itself got Geo Special Survey of three mining areas out of the 95. From the survey of the Gumthla North Mining Block, it was proved that the mining contractor has bee extracting minerals from the double area than allotted to him (204 %). It is natural the mineral mined by the contractor increased from 20.34 lakh tones to 44.72 lakh tones. It means, the State suffered a direct loss of about 110 per cent.

The illegal mining of minerals changed the course of the river, the boundary of the bank was changed, so much so that for illegal mining bridge was made in the river beds. The sand mafia made a dam in the river belt to check the flow of the river, the report reads.

The CAG report has also mentioned that illegal mining is going on unhindered without any auction. The report has made a mention of Nagli block of Yamunanagar and it has been proved by satellite image, they added adding that the CAG has clearly mentioned that the Khattar Government should collect all the facts about the illegal mining in all the mining areas and these should be inquired into.

The Khattar Government has not taken any action during the 18 months (April 01, 2018 to November 2019), it shows that it is not something fishy only but it is a big scam.

According to an estimate the Haryana Government is expected to earn a revenue of Rs 2133 crore per year from the 95 mining areas. But the CAG report has found that the mining contractors are extracting minerals from double areas and putting the State to a loss of more than Rs 5000 crore annually.

Both Sailja and Surjewala claimed that the mining scam should be inquired into by a sitting Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and its report should come within three months, so that political-administrative-mining mafia-mining contractors nexus is exposed.