BJP members walk out of house over issue of closed stone crushers

Dharamsala, December 20

BJP members on Wednesday walked out of the House over the issue of closure of stone crushers in Beas basin.

The issue came up in response to a question raised by BJP MLA Vipin Singh Parmar from Sullah constituency.

In response to the query, the Minister for Industry Harshvardhan Chauhan said the stone crushers were closed as people affected by flood attributed it to illegal mining.

The minister said 128 stone crushers were closed down and 73 had been allowed to operate. The minister said no loss of revenue was caused to the state due to the closure of stone crushers.

The opposition members led by leader of opposition Jairam Thakur alleged that the government was misleading people over the issue.

He alleged that people were forced to pay three times the price of sand and gravel. While stone crushers were closed, the government was claiming that its income had increased. Income could increase only if people were forced to pay more for sand and gravel, he said.

BJP MLA and former minister for industries Bikram Thakur claimed that the state faced losses as 30,000 litres of diesel sale went down due to the closed crushers. He also claimed that 5,500 people lost their job due to the closed stone crushers.

The CM said the state was planning to regulate the price of gravel produced by stone crushers in the state. He said the state aims to increase its revenue from mining to Rs 500 crore.

Dissatisfied with the reply of the CM, the opposition members walked out of the House raising slogans.