Haryana Budget Session: Cong walks out as CM says no probe ‘under pressure’ in Dadam mining mishap

Five people were killed and two others injured in a landslide at Tosham’s Dadam mining zone in Bhiwani district on the morning of January 1. The issue rocked the ongoing session of the Vidhan Sabha with five Congress MLAs, including Kiran Choudhry and BB Batra, giving calling attention notices.

The Congress legislators, led by Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda, demanded a CBI probe in the matter. “This is a serious issue. I had visited the site. The mining was being done at a 90-degree angle, while it should not have been more than 60 degrees. No one is touching the big fish. We demand that it should be probed by CBI,” Hooda said.

Khatttar, however, said three committees are already probing the reasons behind the mishap. “Mines Safety Committee, Ghaziabad is also probing. Justice (retd) Preetam Pal is yet to give the final report. When all the three reports come, we shall be able to come to a conclusion. If anyone [opposition] will try to create pressure, we will not act like that. If we feel we have to take a big decision, we shall do that but certainly not under anybody’s pressure,” Khattar said.

Dissatisfied with Khattar’s reply, Hooda and other Congress members staged a walkout.

Earlier, accusing the government accusing of not taking adequate action in cases of illegal mining, Kiran Choudhry said, “The question today is if illegal mining is taking place across the state or not. Be it Yamunanagar, Khanak or Dadam, illegal mining is taking place all over. In cases of Dadam, the slabs fell. That means illegal mining was taking place there. The criminal cases were registered against small companies, but the real culprits were let off”.

She added, “NGT has been taking cognisance, which clearly reveals that something wrong is taking place. This shows that illegal mining was taking place”.

INLD’s Abhay Chautala added, “The minister has admitted that illegal mining did take place in Dadam. The permissible mining was allowed till 150 feet, but the mining took place at 350-400 feet deep. He has admitted it in his reply. One of the ministers has said that illegal mining did take place in 2014, then what action was taken by you in the last seven years?. NGT had stalled the mining, which was again started in 2021. Why did not the government conduct a safety check before mining was resumed. The mining was resumed and the same day, the incident took place in which five persons died. Why did not the government take any action against that company? Supreme Court also passed scathing observations on the issue…”

Speaker Gian Chand Gupta interrupted Chautala and asked him to sit down. Heated arguments erupted between Chautala and Gupta. Chautala refused to stop speaking and carried on his attack on the government.

Congress’s Geeta Bhukkal, who spoke next, too demanded that “a thorough probe should be conducted by an independent investigating agency to unearth the truth and guilty must be punished”.

Earlier, during the Question Hour, Mining Minister Moolchand Sharma, in a reply, said, “No case of organized illegal mining has been found in the state, though sporadic incidents of theft of minerals have been noticed which are being dealt with as per law. Such incidents also include cases of transportation of minerals from other neighbouring states without valid supporting documents”.

“Haryana government has chosen a policy of zero tolerance against illegal mining and has constituted district level task force under the chairmanship of deputy commissioners to prevent any incidents of illegal mining and to ensure compliance of the orders of the courts in this regard. The action taken by these task forces is reviewed by another state level task force constituted under the chairmanship of the chief secretary. Two special enforcement teams of [olice have also been constituted and are working with the mining officers,” the minister said.

Later, while interacting with reporters at the end of the day’s proceedings, Khattar termed as completely baseless the opposition’s allegation that the Dadam mine’s lease had been granted to benefit an ineligible bidder.

Responding to another question, he said, “We have made a new mining policy, in which the mining process has been simplified and the auction of mining works is being done in a transparent manner”.