Nishank seeks high revenue growth via river-bed mining

With the river-bed mining locally known as “khanan” not giving desired revenue in Uttarakhand, the government is mulling options for a review of the policy in order to make the sector a money-spinner.

An indication to this effect was given by Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank during recent meetings where he told the officials to explore options for increasing revenue from the mining business in view of the tight financial position of the state.

A section of the forest officials are of the view that the mining through auction process can provide higher revenue generation to the hill state to the tune of Rs 300-400 crore. At present, the government only earns Rs 100-150 crore through the collection of stones, boulders and other minor minerals from various rivers that include the mighty Ganga in the state. “Our Chief Minister has asked us to increase the revenue from the mining sector and auction is the best bet,” said an official.

The mining business provides employment opportunities to thousands of people in the hill state where the Uttarakhand Forest Development Corporation (UFDC) and the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) are the two main government agencies which carry out the mining. While UFDC has been mandated to carry out the mining only in the reserved forest, outside the reserve forest, certain areas had been allocated to GMVN. In rest of the civil areas, the government gives the right of mining to private parties which often lead to widespread illegal mining.

Due to strict environment norms and court orders, the river-bed mining had been virtually banned in forest and other areas early this year.

Following the ban, the prices of construction materials had gone up considerably which was putting lot of pressure on the margins of real estate companies.

But during the past few months, the government has received environmental and other clearances for various rivers like Gola, Sharda Dabka and Kosi in Kumaon region and Song and Jhakan in Dehradun district of Garhwal region. “We are beginning the river bed mining in Song-I and Song-II from November,” said the official.

Environmentalists here feel that the river-bed mining helps in checking floods in the river due to over-deposition of boulders, silt and other sandy materials.

When contacted, industries minister Bansidhar Bhagat said he has not heard anything about changing the current mining policy.