The Uttar Pradesh government ordered a probe into illegal mining in Saharanpur but maintained that revenue collection from mining had gone up as the Bharatiya Janata Party government had ensured transparency in allotment of mines.
The issue was raised during Question Hour in the Assembly, which witnessed sharp exchange of words between opposition leaders and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna, leading to a walkout by Samajwadi Party and Congress members on Friday.
Replying to a question raised by Mohammed Aslam Raini of Bahujan Samaj Party and Sanjay Garg of Samajwadi Party on illegal mining in Saharanpur, Khanna admitted that prices of sand and coarse sand (maurang) had gone up by 10-15 per cent but revenue from mining had increased many times in the last couple of years.
“Revenue collection in 2011-12 was Rs 593 crore, in 2012-13 it was Rs 722 crore, in 2015-16 it rose to Rs 1,222 crore and further to Rs 1547 crore in 2016-17. But during the BJP regime in 2017-18, revenue collection was Rs 3,247 crore and in 2018-19 it clocked Rs 3,164 crore. In the 2019-20 fiscal it is Rs 1,700 crore till date and can go up to Rs 2,500 crore by March-end,” Khanna said.
The minister said that this fiscal the revenue would dip because of NGT (National Green Tribunal) directives under which 54 mines had been closed.
Contesting the claims, leader of opposition Ram Govind Chaudhary sought to know about the prices of sand and coarse sand between 2011-12 and 2016-2017, claiming that the prices had gone up by 200 per cent.
The parliamentary affairs minister admitted that the prices of sand and coarse sand had gone up but it was only by 10-15 per cent.
“The Yogi Adityanath government has brought a new Act in January 27, 2020 which facilitates mining in a transparent manner,” he said.
Not satisfied with the answer, the SP and Congress staged a walkout.

Expressway: Transport Minister Ashok Kateria claimed that the number of accidents on expressway had come down due to steps taken by the government.
Replying to a question of Haji Irfan Solanki (SP) and Umashankar Singh (BSP), the minister said that 42 police patrol vans were stationed on Agra-Lucknow Expressway and Yamuna Expressway while 16 ambulances were in place in these expressways to provide relief to people in case of emergency.
“To monitor the speed of vehicles, speed radars have been installed on expressways. If a car crosses Agra-Lucknow Expressway within less than three hours, it is penalised for overspeeding and e-challans are being sent to the homes of the vehicle owners,” he said.