Punjab and Haryana are among those States where mining is the major source of income of the Government as well as local contractors. But the illegal mining and its extra costs charged by the mafias have become the problem for the State Governments. Though Haryana banned the mining and Punjab is still on the way with banning it in some of its areas.

To thwart the illegal mining and maintain transparency in the system Punjab has come with a new mining policy after four years of the SAD-BJP rule. “Since February last year Haryana Government has banned mining in their State, contractors and builders are moving to Punjab for the sand and are ready to pay any cost,” told the Punjab official.

“This results the sudden increase of mining in Punjab,” he added. Meanwhile, in the past six months State has also noticed 38.5 crore of revenue in this sector which is an optimum figure.

Disclosing about `77 crore of revenue in the past one year from the mining and auction Kalia had said that revenue is not the motive of the Government however they want to ensure sand with affordable rate to the people.

Punjab is the State which was counted for the sand mining in the northern India after Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. “Lobbing in the Centre Government made it ban in Haryana and some areas of Punjab which ultimately results the increase in the costs of the sand in UP and enhancing their profits. They do want to ban it in Punjab also, however in some of the areas it has already banned,” said the highly based source of Punjab Government.

As per official documents available with The Pioneer say that infrastructure upgrade in Haryana has suffered a lot due to closure of mines. “In infrastructure, the State has faced a major setback due to the closure of mines. The Punjab and Haryana High Court decided that mining is a responsibility of both the State and the lease holder,” the document states.

Haryana Government officials claim that they were allowed by the court to carry out Environment Impact Assessments and to place them in public domain and then auction the mines. Thereafter, the lease holder can prepare the environmental management plan and go ahead with mining.

Mining in Haryana has always been caught in the vortex of controversies following which the Supreme Court last April decided to look into the allegations of illegal mining and violation of environmental laws by miners. There is a strong syndicate of miners from the private sector, who enjoy the alleged political patronage from the ruling and other opposition parties.

In February last year, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had banned mining activities in Haryana as a majority of miners had not been able to prepare EMPs to reduce the impact on the ecology.