Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, The Leader of opposition Sunil Jakhar accused the Punjab government as mere puppet in the hands of sand mafia and as a consequence government public works as well as theconstruction work in the private sector has been severely affected. There almost complete drought of non seasonal labour jobs in the market as with such high input costs common man has completely stopped building new homes and even cannot afford minor repairs. On 13th Jun 2014, CM Punjab S.Parkash Singh Badal has met union environment minister Parkash Javedkar and had informed him of having given clearance to 39 sand mines in the state, but ironically no administrative action has been initiated to auction these mines. As a consequence the sand remains costly and it appears that there are some vested interests in the government who do not want to end this artificial scarcity and high price cycle.
Mr. Jakhar dared CM Punjab to call a one day legislative session exclusively on the issue of high prices of sand and let it be publically telecasted, so that the people of Punjab should know the real truth behind so costly sand and artificial scarcity. People of Punjab must understand that the incumbent Punjab government has vested interests in the sand mines and now the excuse of passing the buck on central government too stands exhausted. It is time to debate on this sensitive anti-people issue, thread bare, so that both complacency and role of government supported vested players get exposed.
In order to address to the scarcity of sand the Punjab and other states were empowered to set state level Environment Impact Assessment authority by the congress led UPA government on 24th December 2103, but the Punjab government has failed to give any clearance to big sand mines and as a consequence people of Punjab continue to pay exorbitant price for the sand.
Mr. Jakhar further said that the incumbent industry minister Mr. Madan Mohan Mittal as well as earlier Industry minister Mr.Anil joshi had categorically made statement on the floor of the house on 27th June 2012 that by 15th August 2012 the rate of sand will normalise to their previous levels , but nothing has happened as the sand mining remains firmly in the hands of sand mafia and crores of rupees of common man have been pocketed by these sand syndicates.
