Corruption Widespread As Contractors With Badal’s Party Links Bag Mining Contracts – Again

:dateline:With the draw of lots of successful bidders getting over today to decide on the allotment of the 79 quarries, groups of mining contractors � once again � having affiliation with leaders of the ruling Akali Dal government have gained the maximum contracts.

The challenge will now be to rein in these contractors and ensure that they sell the sand and aggregate (mined from the quarries) at pre-determined rates fixed by the Punjab Government.

Of the 79 quarries that were auctioned by the government between November 30 and December 2 using reverse bidding, the group led by a powerful former Akali MLA from the Doaba region has got over 90 per cent of the contracts.

Sources in the state industry department as well as in the mining trade confirm that the group has bagged the majority of mining contracts and none of the first timers has been selected after the draw of lots that took place on December 3 and 4. Almost the same mining contractors have been successful in getting contracts, barring those at one or two places in Mohali district where a contractor � having affiliation with the Congress � has been awarded the contract to mine a quarry.

Official sources in the government however insist that since the policy has been made transparent and profits of contractors have been capped at Rs 10 per tonne of minerals mined by them, along with fixing of the retail price of sand and aggregate (sand and gravel mix), the price of sand would be brought down to a level where the common man no longer feels the pinch.

Kuldeep Singh Makkar, a leading mining contractor who along with his son has won several contracts, told The Tribune that prices of sand and aggregate have already seen a correction since the auction of quarries began earlier this week.

Officials in the department say that the political patronage earlier enjoyed by the mining contractors will cease to exist now mainly because elections are fast approaching and the government wants to wash its hands of the ‘cartelisation’ of the sand mining business.

�The message has already been sent around in the administration that the ruling party does not want this to become an election issue that could be exploited by the Opposition. So powers have been vested in officials to act against any deviation from the new policy,� said a senior government official, adding that other that district mining officers, the local administration and local police have been asked to take immediate action in case of any flouting of the new mining rules.