Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu has said that the state government is ready to make necessary amendments to the mining policy and will also seek the opinion of MLAs in this regard.

Announcing this in the State Legislative Assembly on Thursday, he disclosed that the state earns Rs 400 crore from mining, which will be increased to Rs 1,000 crore.

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He was speaking while intervening in response to the original question of MLA Dr Janak Raj. MLAs Sanjay Awasthi and Neeraj Nayyar also asked supplementary questions on the issue.

The Chief Minister said that the wealth of the state should not be allowed to be looted.

“If there has been any mistake in the previous cases, it will be rectified, and we will work on how to take back the wealth,” he said.

Earlier, during the Question Hour, Dr Janak Raj said that there is a plan to give 165 bighas of land to a person in Chamba district without an auction, whereas, according to the mining policy, more than 5 bighas of government land cannot be allotted without an auction. However, this land is being given on lease without an auction.

At this, Industry Minister Harsh Vardhan Chauhan said that this matter was related to the year 2015.

He said that the application for this lease was submitted in 2015, and after obtaining environmental clearance, the LOI was issued in 2016, followed by further proceedings.

He said this lease was cancelled after the change of power and that since 2018, the government has not allocated any government land on lease for mining without an auction.

He said that in 2021, the Government of India granted its forest NOC, and more than Rs 58 lakh has been deposited for it.

The Industry Minister said that since 2018, the practice of leasing more than five bighas of land for mining has been stopped.

He said this matter was approved since it came up before 2018.

Chauhan said that 322 mining leases were granted from 2016 to 2019, but FCA has been received in only two cases so far.

He also said that the government does not want to take any step that may bring disrepute to it in the court.

He further said that large mining sites in the state will be divided into smaller plots and allotted to ensure that leaseholders do not have to pay a large upfront sum.