Following the death of two mining workers in Dadum mining zone, senior Congress leader and former Haryana minister Kiran Choudhry on Tuesday hit out at the state government and the local administration for allowing the mafia to indulge in illegal mining in blatant violation of the approved mining plan, conditions of environmental clearance and consent to operate.
Alleging connivance of the government with the land mafia, she termed the government action in the matter “too little, too late” and said she had raised the issue through an attention motion in the previous budget session of the Vidhan Sabha
“I highlighted how the mining mafia is causing loss to the exchequer amounting to billions of rupees annually, besides doing serious damage to the biodiversity and ecology. A letter to Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar in December last year, expressed concerns over degradation of the Aravallis and Shivalik foothills due to illegal mining and unauthorised colonisation,” the Tosham MLA said.
“Even though this letter was duly tabled by the speaker, I’m yet to receive a response from the government,” she added.
Chaudhry further said the FIR in case of the Dadum mining zone took an inordinate delay of two days and no ex gratia compensation has been announced by the state government for dependents of the deceased mining workers, so far.
{{/usCountry}}Chaudhry further said the FIR in case of the Dadum mining zone took an inordinate delay of two days and no ex gratia compensation has been announced by the state government for dependents of the deceased mining workers, so far.
{{/usCountry}}“A compensation of ₹1 crore each should be paid to the dependents of the deceased mining workers. Moreover, despite having constituted a number of committees on the Dadum mishap and the expert panel of the NGT recommending a fine of ₹7.5 crore on the project proponents, the government is yet to take any effective remedial steps,” she added.