Govt allows mining in state

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, February 26

The state government today announced to start mining activities in the state.

Addressing a press conference in here today, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said his government had decided to start mining activities in all mining areas of rivers available in the state. He said the Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation would be doing most of the mining. He said the mining department had been told to make a policy for it. Chief Minister also pointed out that the state had been suffering loss of revenue due to underutilisation of mining activity which were going on rampantly in the neighbouring states.

Describing today’s Union Railway Budget as disappointing, Chief Minister Harish Rawat said it for the first time in the last 10 years that Uttarakhand got nothing from the budget. He reminded that Uttarakhand got 14 new trains in the earlier two terms of the UPA government.

He said even funds for laying of railway tracks in the state, which were economically viable, had been denied in today’s railway budget.

“Railway budget has been a big disappointment for me,” Rawat said adding that he would shortly meet the Union Railway Minister to seek justice for Uttarakhand.

Rawat has said he now looks forward to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and hopes that at least Union Budget 2015-16 would not be a disappointment for the state. “I am hoping that state’s long-standing demand of Green Bonus and funds for the Ardh Kumbh Mela will be fulfilled in the Union Budget,” he said.

Referring to the Centre’s Land Ordinance Bill, Harish Rawat questioned the BJP government’s intentions towards bringing amendments to the Land Ordinance Bill earlier brought by the UPA government.

Responding to a query, he denied the Uttarakhand BJP’s charge that the state Congress government only believed in making announcements.