Date | May 24, 2017:

The Yogi Adityanath government appears to have struck ‘gold’ as it goes ahead with mining of ‘sand’ under the new mining policy.

If initial reports reaching from district headquarters are to be believed, the state’s revenue from mining of minor minerals – sand and coarse sand etc.-- would double this year and may go up manifold in coming years.

“Yes, we are awarding contracts through e-tendering for mining of sand and coarse sand on higher rates now. In many districts, this rate for mining of sand is expected to go up even 10 times higher. In Rampur, the rate for mining has gone up from Rs 55 per cubic feet to 850 per cubic feet at one of the site. At another site in the district the rate has gone up from Rs 55 to 446 per cubic feet. In Gautam Buddha Nagar the rate has gone up from Rs 65 to 485 per cubic feet. In Agra the rate is up from Rs 55 per cubic feet to Rs 505 per cubic feet. We are giving short term leases for six months and hope to double the revenue from mining this year,” said additional chief secretary (Mining) Raj Pratap Singh.

Uttar Pradesh government had received Rs 1500 crore revenue from mining in 2016-2017. “We now hope to get Rs 3000 crore in 2017-2018,” said Singh adding contracts were being awarded in 60 out of 75 districts.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath too had recently stated that the state government had been losing large revenue from mining in the past and hoped the state’s revenue would go up manifold in coming days. “UP’s mining minister’s earnings appear to have gone up more than the state government’s revenue during the previous regime,” Yogi had said while replying to motion of thanks to governor in the state assembly last week. Yogi however did not name the minister for mining during the previous regime.

The BJP had made large scale irregularities in mining contracts a major issue in 2017 assembly elections. Party leaders had accused the then minister for mining Gayatri Prajapati of irregularities. Once in power, the Yogi government had decided to do away with the mining policy of previous regime and said no to renewal of mining leases. On April 4, 2017, the Yogi cabinet decided to amend the Uttar Pradesh Minor Minerals Rules, 1963, to end the shortage of building material — sand and coarse sand. Amended rules incorporate provision of up to five year of imprisonment and Rs 5 lakh per hectare fine for illegal mining. On April 11, 2017 the state cabinet had approved short term and long term measures that included authorizing district magistrates to issue e-tenders to allocate up to 10-acre area for sand mining for six months.

(Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/)