A Tribune investigation-I
Plunder of Haryana’s mineral wealth
State not getting royalty, sales tax
From Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

FARIDABAD: The Haryana Government has turned a blind eye to the plundering of its mineral wealth on a massive scale, ostensibly under political patronage, in Faridabad and Gurgaon districts.

The illegal mining operations, which have assumed alarming proportions since the middle of last month, have already caused a huge financial loss to the cash-starved State. The collection of royalty on minerals in the two districts declined by about 40 per cent in the last 20 days of November, when the unauthorised mining started, as compared to the entire month of October.

The loss of sales tax, which is 15 per cent on minerals, is in addition to the loss of royalty. According to an estimate, minerals worth about Rs 30 lakh are being plundered daily from the Ishq Mandi area of Faridabad district alone.

It is alleged by knowledgeable persons that the State’s Mining Department, which has the responsibility of guarding the mineral wealth of the State, has become a “handmaid” of a mining mafia. Certain conscientious officers of the department admit in private the wrong-doings of the mafia but express their helplessness to rein in its activities. When confronted the officers refuse to go on record.

Following the surrender of the department before the mafia, even small players are taking advantage of the situation and are getting away without paying royalty to the State.

As the State Government got the scent of The Tribune investigation, it immediately shifted two senior most officers, Mr P.K. Chaudhary, Commissioner, and Mr Vivek Joshi, Director, from the Mines and Geology Department. These officers are believed to have advocated a tough line against illegal mining.

Mr Joshi had sought a report from the Assistant Mining Engineer, Faridabad, on the illegal mining in that district. Finding the report “vague”, Mr Joshi directed the State Mining Engineer, Mr Kuldeepak Ahuja, to take a team for an on-the-spot enquiry. The team visited the district on December 16 but the illegal mining continues.

The loss to the State exchequer has been further compounded by the forcible suspension of work at several mines, the legal rights of which are held by the Sethi group, a big league player in the industry. The group sources in the department say, alone contributed about Rs 6 crore as royalty and sales tax to the total collection of about Rs 10 crore in the two districts in October last.

When a Tribune team visited the Ishq Mandi area on the Delhi-Haryana border, along the Surajkund-Gurgaon road, in the afternoon of December 12, a stream of trucks (one in 10 minutes) was seen heading towards a deep pit where a number of big-sized yellow-coloured excavators were filling the trucks with silica sand or ordinary sand, called “badarpur” in local parlance.

As my colleague, Vijender Tyagi, clicked furiously, I was able to strike a conversation with a worker, Mukesh Yadav. “Whose pit is it?” “Kartar’s” pat came the reply. “Kartar, who?” “Kartar Bhadana”. Mukesh pointed to another pit a little far away, saying it belonged to Avatar Bhadana. “Pits over there belong to Sethi. Uska kam machine se band karwa diya hai (work in Sethi’s pits has been closed for the past one month).”

Mr Kartar Bhadana is the Haryana Cooperation Minister, while his younger brother, Avatar, is the Congress MP from Meerut. The younger Bhadana was made a minister without being an MLA in the late eighties by the then Chief Minister, Mr Devi Lal.

Mukesh agreed to take us around the area. We went up to the boundary of Delhi, where a stone wall separates the Asola-Bhatti bird sanctuary of the national Capital from Haryana. The wall had been punctured at one place by the mining activity, threatening the sanctuary.

On our return we joined the stream of trucks going away from the pit. We met no barrier. The trucks stopped nowhere to pay “chungi”, which includes royalty payable to the government against receipts printed and issued by the Mining Department.

Kartar has been trying to get a mining lease for the Ishq Mandi area since 1980. Till date his efforts have not succeeded because of a pending case in the Delhi High Court. Till the final decision the area cannot be leased to anyone. In October last the Mining Department came out with a new instrument, obviously to bypass the court restrictions. It offered a 30-day short-term permit for mining after Mr Bhadana wrote to it that he would have no objection if a lease for minor minerals was given to anyone.

One Gopi Chand, said to be close to Mr Bhadana, offered to take out 1,52,700 tonnes of minerals from the area within 30 days. The royalty on this quantity comes out to be Rs 91 lakh. The successful bidder was required to deposit the entire amount of royalty plus 50 per cent of the royalty as security with the department in advance. Thus the bidder was to deposit over Rs 1.36 crore. To help him out, the department started accepting advance deposit on the five-day basis. The Sethis moved court against the grant of permit without fulfilling certain conditions imposed by the Supreme Court for mining in the area. The permit was terminated after about a fortnight.

Another short-term permit for 10 days was offered after incorporating the court stipulations. Though the Sethis were the highest bidder, their offer was turned down on the plea that it was conditional. A letter of intent was issued to one Tejvir, who was also considered close to Mr Bhadana. The permit is yet to be granted pending fulfillment of the court conditions.

The permit offer was made on November 11. From the next day the Sethis were allegedly told by department officials not to operate their mines on which they had legal lease in the two districts. The pits of the Bhadanas started humming with activity the same day. “No permit, no royalty.”

When contacted Mr Bhadana said. “Hame do-char din main permission bhi mil jayegi (we will get permission also in two or four days).”

“Is mining without permission not illegal?”

Mr Bhadana: “Ham to mining nahin karte. Area khula hai. Log thodi bahut chori kar lete hain (We don’t mine. The area is unguarded. People commit petty theft).”

However, he could not explain the presence of heavy machinery at the site in his possession.

The Public Accounts Committee of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha had decided to visit Faridabad and Gurgaon districts to examine the issue of illegal mining. One of the prominent members of the committee, Mr Khurshid Ahmed, belongs to this belt. He is well aware of the malaise and had been raising the issue of illegal mining on the floor of the House.

However, the visit of the committee was aborted by the premature dissolution of the Assembly on December 14.

To be concluded