Maharashtra has seen a whopping 440% increase in illegal mining cases in the past five years.
Maharashtra has seen a whopping 440% increase in illegal mining cases in the past five years. The ministry of mines said the illegal mining cases detected in the state shot up from 4,919 in 2006 to 26,563 in 2010. Apart from this, 20,928 cases were clocked in the first three quarters of 2011. Maharashtra also earned the dubious distinction of not taking steps to curb the menace as just one case was registered during the period.
Till recently, Karnataka was the hotbed of illegal mining. Cases in the southern state also went up, but by a considerably lesser margin (63%). The number of cases increased from 3,027 in 2006 to 4,949 in 2010. Other states which saw more illegal mining cases are Andhra Pradesh (5,385 in 2006 to 17,882 in 2010), Haryana (504 in 2006 to 3,446 in 2010) and Himachal Pradesh (478 in 2006 to 1,213 in 2010).
Surprisingly, illegal mining cases are not being detected in Goa anymore. It saw a drop in the number of registered cases — 313 in 2006 to just 13 in 2010. Illegal mining cases have also dropped sharply in Tamil Nadu (2,140 in 2006 to 277 in 2010).
Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan are two other states where the number of illegal mining cases detected by the government has seen a marginal decrease.
There are 21,247 court cases in Madhya Pradesh which has also seen a decrease in illegal mining cases — down from 5,050 in 2006 to 4,245 in 2010. Karnataka has 600 court cases, while Andhra Pradesh has none.
The statistics, announced by the minister for mines (independent charge) Dinsha J Patel earlier this week, are likely to open a can of worms. Most trends seem bizarre at first glance. The fact that court cases have hardly been filed in the two Congress-ruled states of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh (despite a sharp rise in the number of illegal mining cases) could put the UPA on the back foot over the issue once again.
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