Jalandhar,
\nLocal Bodies Minister Navjot Sidhu today questioned the seriousness of the Punjab Government in curbing illegal sand mining and the prevalent corruption in<\/p>\n
the department.<\/p>\n
Addressing the media here, Sidhu wondered who was stopping the government from impounding trucks carrying illegal sand. \u201cThe Himachal Pradesh<\/p>\n
Government has curbed illegal mining by impounding trucks involved in the activity. It has also levied electricity charges on crushers, while no such policy has<\/p>\n
been formulated by us,\u201d said Sidhu, adding that levying a meagre Rs 7 a unit on 1,008 crushers in Punjab would generate Rs 150 crore revenue.<\/p>\n
He said government contactors of sand quarries too were indulging in illegal practices. \u201cThe prescribed weight of sand carried by a tipper is different from what<\/p>\n
is actually loaded in the vehicles,\u201d said Sidhu, adding that while the mining was a Rs 3,000-crore industry in Punjab, the government was only able to get Rs 450<\/p>\n
crore till date.<\/p>\n
Accompanying Sidhu, PPCC president Sunil Jakhar said it was not possible to impound every tipper. \u201cWe have managed to increase revenue from Rs 40 crore<\/p>\n
to Rs 450 crore and will soon take it to Rs 2,000 crore,\u201d said Jakhar.<\/p>\n
On the alleged \u201cgoonda tax\u201d sought from transporters at Bathinda refinery, Jakhar alleged that it seemed to be an act of some Akali workers who wanted to<\/p>\n
malign the government\u2019s image. He said an investigation had been initiated into the matter.<\/p>\n
Says onus on CM
\nWhen asked why no action had been taken against corrupt MC officials, Sidhu said the matter pertained to the Personnel Department headed by the CM.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarlier the CVO didn\u2019t prosecute even a single official named by us. We now have an honest CVO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jalandhar, Local Bodies Minister Navjot Sidhu today questioned the seriousness of the Punjab Government in curbing illegal sand mining and the prevalent corruption […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[314],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-punjab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20955,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20953\/revisions\/20955"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}