Crush the nexus

THE report of the Haryana Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), revealing the shocking shenanigans of the deeply entrenched mafia in mining operations in Yamunanagar, reinforces the glaring lapses that The Tribune has been pointing out in its ‘Criminal Nexus’ series of reports. Now that the serious matter has been taken note of by the Assembly with damning evidence, it would be criminal if the clandestine pilferage of precious resources is allowed to continue. The mining mafia’s nexus with politicians and officials can be crushed only by clamping down on this well-oiled machinery enabling daylight robbery of sand, gravel and boulders along the Yamuna riverbed and the Aravallis in the Gurugram-Nuh region.

Particularly shocking is the PAC note delineating how the law is hoodwinked: checkposts at the sites are manned not by government officials but the mining contractor’s men; CCTV cameras are not functional; even the government’s e-Ravaana portal is manipulated as it shows impossibly quick (within seconds) despatches of the loot. Sadly, admonishments by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to the Haryana Government amid irrefutable evidence of criminal mining over the years have elicited little effective action. The NGT’s recent comment that the state’s Action Taken Report had nothing on the action being taken to control illegal mining in quantified terms is telling. Equally frustrating are attempts by the ED and other authorities to nab the culprits. Trials in cases against powerful mining firms accused of unlawful practices go on endlessly, with no sign of a logical conclusion. If officials scrupulously close in on the deceitful players, they are immediately transferred out; only last year, a DSP inspecting a site was mowed down.

The government must develop a fool-proof policy to control the rampant mining as the illegal excavation activity is causing irreversible damage to the natural ecosystem and wildlife habitat.