Despite the hard hitting statement of Haridwar MP on illegal mining, the business allegedly goes on uninterruptedly in river Alaknanda ?
The Haridwar member of parliament and former Uttarakhand chief minister close to union home minister Amit Shah – Trivendra Singh Rawat had few days ago raised his voice in Lok Sabha against his own chief minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami indirectly accusing him for open violation of all the set norms of mining in Uttarakhand , of which he is himself a minister where illegal mining is being done in various rivers of Uttarakhand and hundreds of trucks loading the material during nights not only weakening our roads , bridges but also brutally injuring and killing the human beings by their arbitrary business and acts. Vociferous Trivendra Singh Rawat , MP Haridwar was speaking extempore reading a prepared text uninterruptedly in Lok Sabha taking the Uttarakhand government to task urging to stop illegal mining in Uttarakhand’s river making them hollow from the base, extracting tremendous quality of minerals, stones etc and unambiguously violating the established norms and rules when as per rules mining, extraction of minerals, material from the rivers is not permitted after six PM.
The speech of Trivendra Rawat was so impactful that the national and local media approached the former CM as well as the CM Uttarakhand for response but was tight-lipped, instead the mining secretary of Uttarakhand came in camera in support of the government as its spokesman.
On the contrary, the secretary of mining of Uttarakhand Brijesh Kumar Sant started batting in defence, ofcourse on the instruction of the chief minister outrightly rejecting and denying the charges of the former CM and MP Trivendra Singh Rawat confidently clarifying that whatever he said was fabricated, on frivolous grounds and unsubstantiated as there is not a single incident of illegal mining in Uttarakhand and that compared to the previous year the Uttarakhand government’s mining department has earned Rs. One thousand crores which was earlier Rs. 650 crores.
This statement of contradicting the former CM and Haridwar MP’s statement by a secretary mining of Uttarakhand badly annoyed Trivendra Singh Rawat who while responding to the media query ( by TV 100 reporter at Delhi BJP headquarter) for his reaction said that he never answers to the questions related to officers as Lions never hunt dogs, unambiguously meaning that he had allegedly compared the secretary mining as DOG. Even the Congress party’s former CM Harish Rawat who happens to be a good friend of Trivendra Singh Rawat under whose tenure as CM, the Dhencha Seeds Scandal case was quashed against the former, had termed this reaction of Trivendra as full of proud which shouldn’t have been given equating a bureaucrat as dog.
However , despite the BJP Haridwar MP’s such a vociferous outburst in Lok Sabha over the uncontrolled arbitrary mining going on in Uttarakhand nothing has changed .
A video has been posted in social media clearly showing the pokers, big trucks and cranes busy in extracting minerals from Alaknanda river in Srinagar, Garhwal two days ago even after six PM. The post was repeated on X by one Uttarakhandi, journalist on his handle writing in Hindi : Kudos to the people who clean the river Alaknanda risking their lives in the strong current Chief Minister and Mining Department Minister @pushkardhami ji, is this revenue increasing mining or illegal mining as told by@tsrawatbjp ji?
It may be recalled that the government of Uttarakhand claimed in 2025 that the mining sector of the Himalayan state has recorded a milestone by earning Rs.750 crores from mining in Uttarakhand.
According to the official press statement then the Department of Information and Public Relations claimed that in line with the vision of the chief minister of Uttarakhand there has been significant progress in the mining sector with the state earning Rs.650 crores revenue which is hundred percent more that the previous year of 324 crores.
However this year the mining secretary on camera confirmed that now they have earned Rs.1000 crores from mining thus contradicting the statement of their own party MP and former CM Trivendra Singh Rawat in the Lok Sabha the other day terming it as completely wrong , biased and unsubstantiated thus creating quite a controversy.
According to the renowned entrepreneur and social activist of Uttarakhand T.S.Bhandari it’s against eco system to excavate sand from live river bed. Why our bureaucrats and politicians are so insensible..?
Moreover the NGT has also ruled that no river sand mining will be allowed without these consents, as excavation can disturb the river bed, velocity, and flow pattern, and may also adversely affect river morphology, ecology, groundwater regime, and habitat of wild fauna.
Restrictions:
Rules don’t permit mining directly on the riverbed, and the use of heavy machinery is also restricted said Mr.Bhandari.
(All photos grabbed from the video on X, social media)
