Chandigarh, May 18, 2020 (Yes Punjab News)
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said after facilitating liquor contractors led by Congressmen, the Punjab government had now decided to allow the sand mafia to loot mineral resources worth thousands of crores instead of giving any relief to the poor and needy as well as the common man who was passing through a harrowing time during the COVID – 19 pandemic.
Addressing a press conference here, Senior SAD leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said apparently the Congress government was not happy in presiding over a Rs 5,600 crore loss in excise revenue besides the Rs 676 crore largesse given to liquor contractors for “lack of sales” during curfew which was not true taking into consideration the home delivery of liquor done by them.
“Now the Congress government has decided allow the sand mafia to have a free run in the State by reducing auction rates by as much as 80 per cent. He said this largesse was being given despite the fact that sand mafia continued to mine sand and gravel during curfew and even earlier without having permission to do so”.
Making a letter of the Mining department public in this regard, Dr Cheema said the letter dated May 12 had reduced State collection from Rs 26 crore per month to Rs 4.85 crore per month besides waiving off all instalments for a two month period.
He said this largesse had been given despite the fact that the government had been unable to recover any money from the Rs 306 crore sand mining blocks auction done in July last year. “The government’s record is equally bad for the 2018-19 period when it promised collection of Rs 1200 crore but collected Rs 38 crore only”, Dr Cheema added.
He said this largesse had been given despite the fact that sand prices had been raised by the miners and they were not obligated to give cheaper sand to the consumers. He said besides imposition of “goonda tax” of Rs 12,000 per truck imposed by the mafia, it had raised the price of a truck load of sand to Rs 28,000 per truck.
He said it was strange that the government had worked at breakneck speed to give relief to sand mafia but had not deemed it fit to give any relief to the industry or even to domestic power consumers or daily wagers and Khet Mazdoor.
Demanding an independent inquiry into the entire scandal, Dr Cheema also appealed to the Green Tribunal to send its team to see the damage which had been caused to the environment through illegal mining without any environment clearance. He said rampant mining was going on in districts where there was not even one legal ‘khud’. He also demanded that the State government provide complete information about legal ‘khuds’ to the public and mark them so that checks could be put on illegal mining.
The SAD leader also demanded that the government withdraw its order giving illogical and illegal relief to the sand miners and hold fresh auctions of all sand mines through an external agency to ensure complete transparency in the bidding and allocation process.
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