Govt eyes Rs 800 crore from mining

The Aam Aadmi Party government is eyeing an annual revenue of Rs 800 crore from mining operations, an attempt to rev up the state’s dwindling finances and also to fulfill the party’s pre-election promise of putting a stop to illegal quarrying.

The revenue target is nearly three times the earning of Rs 288.52 crore from the quarrying operations in 2023-24.

According to official sources, the Punjab Development Commission and the Department of Mines and Geology have prepared a “Draft Report on Increasing Mining Revenues in Punjab”, which will be adopted as the next mining policy once approved by the state Cabinet at its next meeting.

According to the report, the state has 518 potential mining sites (475 for sand and 43 for gravel) in 14 districts, with a total capacity of 800 crore cubic feet of minor minerals.

Currently, the government has identified 63 commercial and 72 public mining sites. Of these total 135 mining sites, only 92 have an environmental clearance for operations.

During the 2022 Assembly polls, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had alleged a loss of Rs 20,000 crore to the state from illegal mining operations.

However, now the report has estimated the potential annual revenue generation at Rs 800 crore.

The report say as of now, only 34 crore cubic feet of sand and gravel is presently available from the sites against an estimated demand of 300 crore cubic feet.

With the government expecting to rein in the illegal mining business with the move, the draft report has mooted mining leases for crusher owners and a progressive bidding system among measures to increase the state’s revenue from quarrying.

It has also recommended IT solutions like the installation of radio frequency identification readers and cameras at check-points near sites, satellite and drone-based surveys besides GPS tracking of all trucks and material.

While pointing out that frequent policy changes have compounded the challenges, the report also lays stress on enhanced ground truthing of actual sand and gravel available at the sites, usher in reforms in getting consent from landowners for mining on the pattern of Haryana.

It also batted for shifting the responsibility of getting environmental clearances to the contractor as presently, it is the state government that gets necessary approvals from state and Central Environment Impact Assessment Committees, depending upon the size of a quarry.

By doing this, Punjab will be able to achieve low prices of sand and increase its revenue, says the report.

Frequent changes in past

Since 2017, there have been five mining policies in Punjab, including the 2022 and 2023 policies, when public and commercial mining sites were separated

Haryana Mining Policy is being examined. Though having much lesser area for mining, the state earns Rs 1,000 crore from quarrying. Haryana awards contracts for five to 11 years against three-year contracts by Punjab

To break contractor monopoly in mining, a cap has been recommended on the number of concessions a single contractor can hold