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Assembly in session: Illegal mining dominates Haryana House proceedings
Illegal mining dominated the Haryana assembly proceedings for over 80 minutes on the second day of the monsoon session on Tuesday following the opposition party legislators launched a multi-barrel attack
Twelve Haryana police personnel had already sustained injuries this year at the hands of the mining mafia, much before deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Surender Singh was mowed down by a truck carrying stones in Nuh on July 19 while stopping illegal mining, the state government said in the assembly on Tuesday.
The illegal mining dominated the proceedings for over 80 minutes on the second day of the monsoon session on Tuesday following the opposition party legislators launched a multi-barrel attack via a clutch of calling attention notices accusing the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP-JJP coalition government of not doing enough to stop illegal mining.
While the government demolished the accusations by presenting the statistics about the action being taken against the mafia, Congress MLAs also demanded that to stop illegal mining, “mining should be started legally” as linked to this is the livelihood of people.
The mines and geology minister, Mool Chand Sharma informed the assembly that in 2022 at least 13 cases, including the murder of DSP, have been registered, pertaining to attacks on cops while on duty, in which 28 accused were arrested.
In the past four years, 79 cases were registered and 227 accused were arrested after the mining mafia attacked cops in which 60 police personnel were injured (six in 2019, 29 in 2020, 13 in 2021 and 12 this year so far.)
In the last seven months, 450 cases of illegal mining were lodged across the state, 335 accused were arrested, and 299 vehicles were seized. The government said that beginning 2014 and till July 31 as many as 4,664 cases had been registered in which 6,091 accused were nabbed and 4,653 vehicles were seized. Of the total cases registered, 265 cases were also cancelled. The highest 1,054 cases were registered last year in which 1,078 accused were arrested and 1,121 vehicles were seized for carrying out illegal mining.
The minister said that from August 2019 and till June 2022, 4,121 vehicles were seized in Faridabad/Palwal (832), Yamunanagar (1,329), Gurugram/Nuh (1,106), Mahendergarh/Narnaul (8,554) and ₹60 crore penalty was recovered by the mining department as per the state rules and environment compensation as defined by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The minister said the mining in Aravali hill areas of Nuh district stands banned since May/December 2002 as per the orders of the Supreme Court.
“There is no organised illegal mining activity in the state, but only stray incidents of illegal mining are being reported which are dealt with strictly as per law,” the mines minister said even as the Congress MLAs kept interrupting the minister who was struggling with the statistics.
Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar interjected and said during 2005-2014 when Congress was in power, the state had generated ₹1,266 crore in revenue from the mining operations in nine years. On the other hand, he said, in the last seven years and after the BJP came to power, ₹4,660 crore revenue had been generated from mining. At this, Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda protested and the CM retaliated with a witty couplet. Hooda also responded in kind.
Logjam over procedure to be followed
The House witnessed an animated and heated verbal duel between the lone MLA of Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Abhay Singh Chautala, and speaker Gian Chand Gupta over the drill that should be followed to discuss the calling attention notice regarding the murder of the DSP by the mining mafia.
The speaker had clubbed seven Congress MLAs identical calling attention notices with that of Chautala’s.
While asking Chautala to read the calling attention notice, speaker Gupta said that the INLD MLA would not be allowed to ask a supplementary as there is no provision. “What is the purpose of accepting this notice if I am not allowed to ask a supplementary,” Chautala argued and the speaker quoted rules. Congress’ Bharat Bhushan Batra also stood up and countered the speaker’s contention.
Finally, the speaker relented and the INLD leader said the state government has been unable to effectively deal with the mining mafia spreading terror across the state.
Batra said the mining mafia has devastated the Aravali hills. He said it was a deep-rooted conspiracy and questioned why stone crushers were operating in the area despite the Supreme Court’s ban on mining.
Another Congress MLA Neeraj Sharma demanded that legal mining should be started to stop the illegal mining, a demand a few other Congress MLAs also endorsed and reiterated the demand to hold a judicial probe into the Nuh incident.
“A judicial probe will be shortly ordered...,” home minister Anil Vij said, asking why Congress was raising questions over the police action in Nuh after the murder of the DSP.
CM takes poetic potshot at Hooda
During the discussion on illegal mining, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar took a poetic potshot at the Leader of the Opposition, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, saying: “Lehze mein kasak aur chehre par naqab liye firte hai, jinke khud ke khate kharaab hai, woh mera hisaab liye firte hai.”
CET for filling Group C, D posts in Nov: Khattar
The chief minister said directions will be given to complete the ongoing vigilance inquiry in the matter of tendering in the construction of a road in the Faridabad Municipal Corporation at the earliest and strict action will be taken against the officer or employee found guilty in the investigation. The chief minister was responding to a question during Question Hour.
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