Uttarakhand government involved in river mining scam?
BJP, the opposition party in Uttarakhand has accused Congress-led Uttarakhand government of being embroiled in scams worth crores of rupees in its Excise and Mining departments and posed ten questions to it saying if the Harish Rawat led government did not get satisfactory answers to them soon it will be forced to go to court.
An RTI filed on the illegal mining activities in the state has shed light on scams worth crores of rupees. The RTI reveals that the mining rights to lands submerged by overflowing rivers is given to land owners instead of being auctioned of as per the rules. As per the current situation, the land owners are enjoying mining rights to submerged lands apart from claiming compensation from the government whereas, the Supreme Court law say that once the land is submerged due to overflowing rivers, it belongs to the government (after paying compensation to the owner) which has the rights to auction it off to the highest bidder and the entire amount should go to the Government’s treasury.
Alleging a scam worth crores of rupees in the deals clinched with the mining mafia, state BJP President Tirath Singh Rawat demanded a high-level probe into the “shady” manner in which such land had been disposed off at various places in the state.
