No mining on papers, but flow of construction material continues

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 17

Mining is not allowed from the quarries in the state’s river beds during monsoon. Most of the “dry quarries” too have not become operational as environmental clearance is awaited.

Ideally, this should mean a shortage of sand and gravel in the state and this gap in demand and supply should lead to a hike in the prices of these basic construction materials.

However, there is no shortage of the construction material and it is available easily from quarries in Pathankot, Ropar, Nawanshahr, Ludhiana and Moga, including some quarries in the river beds. The only explanation for the consistent supply seems to be the uninterrupted illegal mining across the state.

The Punjab Government, after introducing its new mining policy last year, had capped the rate of sand at Rs 900 per 100 cubic feet. But in wake of almost no checks on the mining contractors and suppliers, consumers are paying anything between Rs 2,200- Rs 2,900 per 100 cubic feet for sand and between Rs 1,800- Rs 2,100 per cubic feet for gravel. The prices are comparable to last year’s rates, though they should have fallen after the government capped them.

Interestingly, while the mining contractors are making hay, the state’s Department of Mining and Geology itself has failed to get any royalty from the contractors for many months now.

Sources in the department told The Tribune that after depositing the initial amount of Rs 176 crore post the auction of mines in October last year, the contractors had failed to deposit royalty, citing the lockdown.

It may be mentioned that the state government had been mulling deregulating all mining operations early this year to wash off the taint of involvement of ruling party’s men in illegal operations. For this, the government needed to pay off the amount it received from the contractors at the time of auction. The proposal was still being debated as many feel that the deregulation could actually jack-up the prices of sand and gravel and raise environmental concerns as indiscriminate mining would peak.

A senior official in the department said the government was taking all measures to stop illegal mining, if any, and the issue of deregulation was “under consideration”.