‘State lost ₹3,000cr in mining revenue during Akali rule’
CHANDIGARH:PUNJAB water resources, and mines and geology minister Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria on Wednesday alleged that mining revenue worth ₹3,000 crore was lost during the 10-year rule of the Shiromani Akali Dal-bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) in the state.
Responding to a supplementary query during the question hour, Sarkaria said the state government was getting only ₹35-40 crore a year from auction of mines earlier, but they were auctioned for ₹306 crore in July last year. “If we go by this figure, revenue of ₹3,000 crore was looted due to illegal mining during the previous government,” he said.
Muktsar MLA Kanwarjit Singh Barkandi (SAD) asked the minister for information about the first two-and-a-half years of the Congress government. “Why don’t you talk about it?” he questioned.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Aman Arora said the Congress had completed three years but was only interested in speaking about the SAD rule. “If the Congress MLAS are raising the illegal mining issue, it shows how serious is the situation,” he said. He also wanted to know what happened to a committee set up by the chief minister that had the then (local bodies) minister Navjot Singh Sidhu as a member. In response, Sarkaria said Sidhu wanted to replicate the Telangana model but it was a ‘fizool’ (useless) idea.
‘NO GOVT SCHOOL BUILDING IS UNSAFE’
Responding to a question asked by Urmar MLA Sangat Singh Gilzian regarding school buildings in the Urmar assembly constituency, school education minister Vijay Inder Singla said not a single government school building was declared unsafe in the state.
“There are classrooms which have been declared unsafe in different schools. A sum of Rs 120 crore has been sanctioned for 1,597 rooms under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan,” he told the member. He said 31 rooms were unsafe in 11 schools in Urmar assembly segment and verification was being done. “As per requirement of the schools, proposal for construction of rooms or repair will be included under NABARD and SSA,” he added.