ED flagged rampant illegal mining in Himachal Pradesh, but poll candidates yet to raise issue

Tribune News Service

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, April 24

Investigations by the police and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have indicated a massive theft of natural resources by way of illegal mining in Himachal Pradesh but the political parties have not made it an issue in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections and the Assembly byelections.

Politicians involved

• No political party is raising the illegal mining issue during campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections and six Assembly bypoll
• One of the reasons for this may be that many political leaders have stakes in the mining business and stone crushers in state

The ED investigations had revealed that the state government suffered a loss of Rs 79.87 crore due to illegal mining and a stone crusher in Una district had sold construction material without the payment of statutory dues. The ED has passed a provisional order for attaching the movable and immovable assets of Lakhwinder Singh, owner of the stone crusher in Una, and the Special Court Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) at Dharamsala had taken cognizance of the case.

The ED investigations had disclosed a massive theft of state resources from a stone crusher in Una district but the political parties have made it an election issue.

The Una police had written to the ED in 2022 to investigate five cases of illegal mining in the district. The police were suspecting large-scale theft of government property and money laundering in these cases. The ED, however, investigated only one case.

Illegal mining was a major issue in the 2022 Assembly elections. Mukesh Agnihotri, who was then the Leader of the Opposition, led the attack on the previous BJP government over the issue of illegal mining. Interestingly, the biggest theft of mined material the ED had detected in the state was in Agnihotri’s Haroli Assembly constituency.

After the monsoon disaster in the state last year, the state government had ordered the closure of 130 stone crushers, including 90 in Kangra district, located in the Beas river basin. Most of the shut stone crushers are now operational again.

The BJP had accused the state government of selectively targeting stone crushers. Jaswan Pragpur MLA and former Minister for Industries Bikram Thakur had accused the state government of targeting stone crushers in Kangra district while allowing those located in Una, Solan and Sirmaur districts to continue operations.

After the recent rebellion in the party, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had alleged that the stone crushers’ lobby in the state was behind it. He had said that the stone crushers’ lobby had hatched a conspiracy to topple his government, as he had ordered the closure of their operations after the monsoon disaster last year. The Congress rebels have been questioning the government over a captive stone crusher operating in Hamirpur district.

However, no political party is raising the illegal mining issue during campaigning for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections and six Assembly byelections. One of the reasons for this may be that many political leaders have stakes in the mining business and stone crushers in the state.

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