Conduct aerial survey of illegal mining: Cong's Lally to CM

Ahead of the visit of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to Shri Khuralgarh Sahib for the state-level 649th Parkash Purb of Guru Ravidas, Congress leader from Garhshankar Amarpreet Lally has demanded that he should do an aerial survey of the illegal mining done in the area before landing in his chopper at the holy shrine.

Lally said, "There already have been reports in the media about the illegal cutting of Shivalik Hills with Poclain machines to excavate soil and stones. The rampant mining being done on large scale can lead to massive ecological imbalance in the area. Forests have been wiped out and the hill cutting has been so brazenly done that some hills have come out to the ground level".

The Congress leader, who went to the site today, said, "We hope that when CM Mann flies to Khuralgarh, he will do an aerial survey of the area for a few minutes and get the work stopped immediately. He must issue directions to the officials for quick intervention so that there is no further loss to the environment by some unscrupulous elements. Since minister Harjot Bains too is coming to the shrine and it is his constituency which is the most affected, we expect him also to take action."

On being questioned that the AAP leaders were blaming Congress leaders for getting illegal mining done, he said, "I challenge them to arrest all those engaged in any such illegal work. If it were the Congress leaders, do you think AAP would have allowed them to continue with the practice. This is a just a tactic of the AAP leaders to get away with the illegalities".

Meanwhile, BJP leader from Garhshankar Nimisha Mehta too has been assuring the devotees that she would take them to Varanasi in special trains that will be run by the Centre ahead of the 650th Parkash Purb of Guru Ravidas next year.

AAP has been organising Akhand Path around the site of 151-foot tall Minar-e-Begumpura, the bhog of which will be held tomorrow. The sangat is also expecting the CM to make certain announcements ahead of the Guru Ravidas jayanti next year and make the event look bigger than the recent visit of the PM to the site.