CAG report reveals Rs 477 crore for UP government due to illegal mining

A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India tabled in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Thursday revealed the previous government, led by Samajwadi Party (SP) chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, lost Rs 477 crore due to unauthorised mining operations.

According to the report, the state geology and mining department failed to “monitor the submission of mandatory quarterly returns, realisation of difference of royalty on revision of rate and assess the price of minerals and interest on late payment of royalty”. The department also did not recover a penalty of Rs 282 crore from 15 lessees who continued extracting minerals without renewing their mining plan and 12 lessees who mined quantities above what had been approved.

The state also had to suffer a loss of Rs 179 crore as five lessees and nearly 3,000 brick kiln owners were allowed to mine sand, boulder, morrum and other minerals without environmental clearance.

Illegal mining in UP has been under the scanner even before the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took over the reins from SP. Last year, SP’s rape-accused mining minister Gayatri Prajapati was sacked by Akhilesh after the Allahabad High Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe illegal mining in the state in which Prajapati could be implicated as well. Prajapati was later reinstated on SP supremo (and Akhilesh’s father) Mulayam Singh Yadav.