Cong promoting mining, forest, land mafia raj: HLP chief

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 12

Himachal Lokhit Party (HLP) chief and Kullu legislator Maheshwar Singh has shed the tag of being the “mouthpiece of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh” by the BJP and termed the two-year-old regime of the Congress as the “mining, forest and land mafia raj”.

Presiding over the meeting of the HLP core group here yesterday, Maheshwar Singh said the Congress government’s rule had been a disaster as the mining, forest and land mafias, who ruled the roost during the PK Dhumal-led BJP regime, continued to have their way in the last two years.

HLP leaders said the Tara Devi tree-felling episode on a private land, the Bharmour (home segment of Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri) tree felling in forest areas, tree felling in Shilai involving a BJP leader, Nalagarh tree felling and Theog tree felling showed that the forest mafia ruled the roost in the state.

Citing a series of temple thefts, including the recent heist at a private temple of Lord Raghunath at Kullu, whose chief representative is Maheshwar Singh himself, he lambasted the Congress government saying it had failed to protect the idols of gods and goddesses and law and order was suffering.

The HLP leaders said mining mafia ruled in Mandi-Kullu ,along the Beas, where 25 engineering students were swept away after water was released from the 126-MW Larji Dam on June 8 last year. The mining mafia was also ruling in the Una-Kangra and Hamirpur belts as the sand was being smuggled outside the state, they charged.

Maheshwar demanded white paper on what the government had done in corruption cases. They said youth were not getting jobs, he alleged and termed the Congress rule as a complete failure on all fronts.

The ministers are busy in infighting, not bothering about the development of the state and redressal of grievances of the common man.