Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today gave clear and explicit directions to all Deputy Commissioners to personally ensure availability of sand and gravel and other mining material to the common public at reasonable price and ensure the working of all auctioned mines at their full capacity. Reviewing the availability of mining material to the common public in a meeting of Deputy Commissioners from all over the state, Deputy Chief Minister said that the duty of DCs to ensure that no body was allowed to create artificial scarcity of mining material by non operating the mines or under operating the mines just for profiteering. He said that it was imperative for district authorities to monitor the dispatch of excavated mining material everyday and send the report to Central Control Room daily. He asked Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. S.K. Sandhu to coordinate with all Deputy Commissioners, Mining Department and Pollution Control Department to remove inter-departmental impediments delaying the auction of mines.
Ordering the immediate auction of 100 mines below 50 hectares, Mr. Badal said that auction process should be accelerated to increase the supplies in the market and bring the price at reasonable level.Focusing on river bed dredging to excavate sand, Mr. Badal asked Deputy Commissioners to identify at least 100 such spots, where dredging of river was legally allowed. He said that time has come that we should adopt most scientific dredging techniques to excavate sand from the river beds without harming the environment. He said that surface mining, if possible, should be avoided as we should not destroy the cultivable land just for mining.
Taking serious note of 4.57 lakh tonnes of Mining material lying in two districts, awaiting the procedural clearance for auction, Mr. Badal asked the concerned department to immediately auction this mining material, which could fulfill the requirement of whole Punjab for at least 4 months. He also asked the Irrigation Department to conduct statewide river bed mapping to identify suitable spots for the dredging of sand. He said that Punjab has 800 kilometer long Canal network and there was huge possibility of dredging sand scientifically from the river bed. He asked the Industry Department to delegate the power to SDMs/Tehsildars/Naib Tehsildars for excavating soil for construction purpose.
Asking the Deputy Commissioners to cancel all those contracts of mines, who have not started their operations, Mr. Badal said that no body would be allowed to monopolized trade to create scarcity of the construction material. Mr. Badal also asked the Deputy Commissioners to ensure proper working of newly setup sale points of mining material. Badal said that he would personally monitor the availability of mining material to the general public and review the position in the weekly meeting of DCs. Besides DCs from all over the state the senior officials of Mining, Industry, Irrigation and Pollution Control Departments were present in the meeting