Times of India: Indore: Saturday,
September 21, 2013.
Alleged nexus
between miners and some unscrupulous officials of district administration in
Neemuch has resulted in a loss of Rs 200 crore to the state exchequer. The
company that was served a notice asking to pay up a penalty of Rs 200 crore was
let off with a no objection certificate to surrender and transfer the mine
later.
Documents
procured under the RTI suggests that the administration had served a notice to
penalize the private company for illegal mining but the officials gave it a
clean chit.
Activist
Prabhat Bhatt who procured the documents said that a private company was given
a temporary patta (lease) for mining stone at Arniamangir in Neemuch district
in 2008 for five years. The mining permission was issued on the condition that
it would help in creating a trench for water conservation in the area free of
cost which would generate revenue for the government. "The company was
also asked to provide Rs 15 lakh to local gram panchayat for development of the
village," said the RTI activist.
He alleged
that the company had violated mining norms by carrying out illegal mining in
the adjacent nullah following which the district administration served notice
on the company in March 2009. The notice had also listed out violation of
several rules related to mining and slapped fine as per section 247 of MP Land
Revenue Act.
Bhatt alleged
that the company carried out illegal mining for construction of 128 km long
four-lane road from Jaora to Nayagaon. "The company had contract for
construction of road for which it had sought mining lease. Instead of replying
to the notice served by administration, the company applied for surrendering
the lease in April 2010," said the RTI activist.
The
administration ended up issuing no dues certificate, while at that time as per
the record available with the district administration, the company has dues of
royalty of around Rs 5 crore. This royalty was apart from the penalty imposed
over company. Bhatt said letter of collector dated May 2010 to end mining lease
of company and issued no dues certificate.
District
Collector Vikas Narwal told TOI over phone that the matter is old and he is not
quite aware about it. However, he assured to look into the matter and action
will be taken if anyone found to be guilty.
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