BJP asks Amarinder to get Rs 11,127-crore Mining Scam probed by CBI

Chandigarh, March 7, 2018: Raising a demand to review the existing mining policy in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party today asked Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to get Rs. 11,127 crore mining scam probed by CBI.

Tarun Chugh, the national secretary of the party, today said the amount lost in mining scam in the first 11 months of Amarinder Government, has surpassed the amount lost in Neerav Modi scam which took place during UPA regime.

He said that more than 4000 hectares of land was explored on the banks of Sutlej and Ravi to earn huge sums through illegal mining in the last 11 months only.

Chugh said that the Congress government, after assuming power, auctioned sand mines at 59 places in the districts of Jalandhar, Nawanshahr, Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Moga and Hoshiarpur thereby allowing mining of 77 lakh tonnes of sand.

Alleging that a controversial former minister managed to get allotted sand mines to his aides. He alleged that the contractors who got mines managed to mine 12 times sand in violation of the permissible limits of mining. He said the contractors mined 4296 hectare of land and took away 9.27 crore tonnes of sand.

Giving further details, Chugh said, the state earned only Rs 371-crore through this deal while the contractors managed to fill their coffers with a huge sum of Rs.11,127 crores.

The BJP leader castigated Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh for handing out a clean chit to his former minister who had to resign due to exposure of his deeds. He said it was now a known fact that various MLAs and leaders were involved in illegal sand mining.