Amarinder asks sub-committee on mining to expedite report on reforms

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has directed the cabinet sub-committee on mining to expedite its report on the much-needed reforms in the business.

He has also ordered the mining department to take urgent steps to ensure that all legal mines function to full capacity to control the escalating prices of sand.

The CM issued the orders during a meeting with the departments of mining and water resources, as well as the three-member sub-committee set up last month to review the mining policy.

Besides sub-committee members, local government minister, Navjot Singh Sidhu and rural development and panchayats minister Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, senior officials of the CMO and the departments concerned were present.

Taking serious note of reports regarding spiraling prices of sand in the state following the government’s crackdown on illegal mining, the CM also asked the Water Resources Department to ensure timely dredging of about 50 lakh tonnes of sand from the rivers.

Amarinder added the state could not afford delay in this regard and he was personally keen to streamline the business further so that the genuine bidders and contractors do not suffer. He did not want the genuine contractors to be further harassed, he added. Amarinder assured the meeting that prices of sand in the state would automatically come down and the situation would get normalized as soon as the business systems are improved.