Urban Mirror Correspondent
Lucknow, January 10: The Lok Gathbandhan Party (LGP) today said that CBI should expedite honest and transparent investigation into massive illegal mining scandal in Uttar Pradesh during the previous Samajwadi Party regime. The LGP has however demanded widening of scope of the investigation from 2007 to 2018 as the loot in mining sector in UP has been going on for a long time. It was not just from 2012 to 2017 but even before and still going on, the LGP added.
The spokesman of the LGP, headed by former Secretary Government of India Vijay Shankar Pandey said illegal mining racket going on from Saharanpur to Sonebhadra has assumed serious dimension with the involvement of top politicians in it. The spokesman said ever since the CBI has launched investigation some political parties have ganged up to oppose it, which indicated that they all were collaborators in the crime against the state. The spokesman said the LGP at its national executive committee meeting in Faizabad on January 7 had also adopted a resolution demanding action against all those involved in the scam. The national president of the LGP Vijay Shankar Pandey said that party movement against illegal mining and ensuring penal action against the accused would be intensified.
The spokesman said that every day at least 50,000 trucks are carrying out several types of minerals from hundreds of sites in UP involving massive seepage in the state revenue. The spokesman said there is caucus from mining sites to state secretariat including top officials and politicians looting the money. The spokesman said the involvement of IAS officer B Chandrakala in the scam is just tip of the iceberg as large numbers of politicians and officers are flourishing on the mining loot of the state. Pointing out that illegal mining over the years has also led to emergence of Mafiosi raj in UP, the spokesman said all of them are getting political patronage and even some of them got elected to state assembly. The spokesman said recently a senior officer who tried to check it was removed from the post. The spokesman said racketeers and looters have octopus like grip over the system and not allowing anyone to function honestly. The spokesman said illegal mining scam is much bigger than NRHM scandal and in view of its enormity its scope of investigation and period should be widened.
