Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 27: While urging the authorities to revoke the decision of giving majority of contracts for the extraction of minerals from the water bodies in Jammu and Kashmir to non-locals, CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami Saturday said that livelihood of thousands of people in the region will be affected, if the Government goes ahead with its decision.
“Till last year, the rights for extraction of the minerals were exclusively reserved with local contractors and most of them alongwith sand diggers associated with the extraction live on the river banks. However, this time, non-local contractors have bagged a majority of the mineral block in every district where the bidding has been completed so far. With the bidding process being held online, locals were left at a disadvantage as high-speed Internet connectivity remains restricted in Kashmir after the Centre revoked Article 370 last August,” he said in a statement.
Mr Tarigami said that giving extraction of minerals to non-locals will not only result in unemployment to those involved in the job, but also allow large scale exploitation of the mineral resources from the water bodies which has led to concerns about the impact on the environment.
In 2016, J&K Government had issued SRO-105 making the rules for regulating the grant of various forms of minor mineral and storage and transportation of minerals and prevention of illegal mining in the region. The SRO-105 was issued by the then Government after Mr Tarigami had raised the issue in the Assembly after some outside contractors were given the contracts for the extraction of minerals from the water bodies in J&K under J&K Industrial Policy-2016.
In the Assembly, parities cutting across the political spectrum supported this demand and a House Committee was constituted which categorically recommended putting an end to giving contracts to outsiders. Accordingly, the Government issued SRO-105 in compliance with the directions of the House Committee.
CPI (M) urged upon J&K administration to bar non-locals from carrying with the extraction of minerals from the water bodies. Only locals of J&K must be allowed to carry on with the extraction activities like previous years as it can safeguard the livelihood of thousands of people associated with it.
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