Keonjhar: Even though the hearing in the Rs 1,800 crore Uliburu mining scam has started at the vigilance court, the public, political leaders, social activists and many organisations are trying to find out when the irregularities in the transportation of minerals through the Hisaburu rail siding will be cracked. The irregularities running into crores have not been opened for a Vigilance probe so far.
Reports said that since several years illegally extracted minerals used to be stocked at the rail siding and transported outside.
A state-level task force had investigated the irregularities and submitted its report to the Directorate of Mines. The report has not been made public, people said.
Mining experts wondered why the irregularities at the rail siding have not been made a subject of Vigilance investigation. There are allegations that many officials of the Mines Department and Railways who are involved in irregularities will be exposed and the probe was suppressed due to this.
They alleged that the Mines Department is not getting the irregularities probed by Vigilance as it fears exposure of its officials.
The Hisaburu rail siding is close to the border of Jharkhand. Minerals were being transported from Uliburu Mines to the rail siding, 3 km from there.
From there, minerals were transported to various places on trains. A major portion of the stocked minerals are transported via secret routes too.
Though the irregularities were exposed the authorities had suppressed files and documents on that.
The main accused in the Uliburu mining scam, Deepak Gupta, had power of attorney of Uliburu Mines. Gupta has no procurement license for mineral transportation, but his company Deepak Steel and Power Limited had been illegally transporting minerals from Uliburu Mines to the Hisaburu rail siding.
Following allegations, the district and state level enforcement squads looked into the matter and informed the mines department of the irregularities.
A Central enforcement committee had also probed the matter, and its report has been allegedly suppressed.
The district enforcement squad had raided the rail siding in 2009 and had seized huge quantities of iron ore and had imposed a fine on Gupta. That year, his procurement license was suspended. Despite that, Gupta had been illegally transporting minerals from there.
To suppress the matter, Gupta was again issued a procurement license in 2010, which raised many eyebrows. After this the Mines Department had been under a cloud.
Radhakant Mohant, the BJP’s district president, said the state government is not keen on investigating the Hisaburu mining scam. “How much iron ore has been transported illegally will be exposed if there is a thorough investigation. Many officials will also be exposed. So it was not probed by the CBI,” Mohant added.
PPC secretary Alok Mishra lamented that there were big scams in Uliburu and Hisaburu. But no action was taken in the Hisaburu case, he said.
Social activist Mukhtar Ahmed said, “The Ulivuru scam is linked to the Hisaburu case. The Mines Department has suppressed files on the Hisaburu scam. If a thorough investigation is carried out into it all corrupt officials will be exposed.” PNN
