Uttarakhand: Government’s new mining policy has effectively stopped the transportation and storage of illegal mining material. Government’s treasury is getting filled with simplification and transparent mining policy.

The effect of the mantra of solution through simplification and transparent mining policy of Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami government is visible on the mining department of the state. The mining department, which has been gasping for half of the revenue target for a long time, has broken all the old records and achieved a record revenue of Rs 270 crore in the first quarter of this year. This has been possible due to effective ban on transportation and storage of illegal mining and online system in allocation of mining leases.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami government is working on new decisions and schemes every day to increase the revenue of the state. Regarding sub-minerals also, the government has made a policy to effectively stop illegal mining, transportation and storage from e-tender, co-e-auction to the allocation of mining leases for solution through simplification, transparency and to prevent corruption in the state by implementing solid sub-mineral avoidance rules. Apart from this, the company allotted through tender in four districts of the state, Dehradun, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital, has been given the responsibility of revenue collection. As a result, better improvements started appearing in the functioning of the mining department as well as the revenue target. Especially, against the revenue target of Rs 875 crore given to the department, Rs 472.25 crore was received in 2022-23 and Rs 645.42 crore in 2023-24. If we compare the revenue of these two financial years, the department has increased its revenue by 40 per cent with Rs 173.17 crore more revenue within a year in 2023. This trend of revenue increase is continuing and in the first quarter of this year (April to June) itself, the department has broken the previous record and earned 53 per cent more revenue than in the last three years with a record revenue of Rs 270 crore. Mining Director Rajpal Legha said that in the first quarter of the last three years, a record revenue of Rs 136.18 crore was received in 2022-23, Rs 177.27 crore in 2023-24 and Rs 270 crore in the first quarter of the current financial year. With this, it is possible to achieve the target of the financial year. He said that the target set by the government would be achieved in the financial year by taking action against illegal mining more effectively and with transparency.