BJP leader Kamal Patel to move NGT against illegal mining

Bhopal: Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former minister Kamal Patel has opened a front against his own party’s government. The day on which PM Modi is reaching Amarkantak for the conclusion of Narmada Yatra, Patel will be approaching the central bench of the NGT with complaint of illegal mining.

On Monday, Patel will complaint against illegal mining in Harda, Hoshangabad, Sehore and Dewas districts to the NGT. Patel says that while on the one hand, the chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan was conducting the Narmada Yatra, on the other hand illegal mining was rampant in the state under the patronage of officers.

Talking to Free Press, Patel said that in these four districts, Narmada was being ‘exploited’. He said that he was eye-witness to Pokelin machines digging out sand from the river bed for transporation in dumpers. He said that when he complained about it to the collector and the SP, instead of taking action, they extended patronage to the illegal miners.

Patel said that as a BJP leader, it was his duty to raise the issue. He said that the issue would cost the BJP heavy in the polls and hence it was necessary to expose the officers now.

Patel, who had lost in the 2013 assembly polls, has been a close associate of Chief Minister Chouhan.  A CBI probe was conducted against him and his sons in the murder of Durgesh Jat at Harda. He had to spend some time in jail at that time. He has now been acquitted in the case. His daughter-in-law is the chairperson of the Harda district panchayat. Patel has been saying almost the same things about the Narmada Yatra, which the Congress has been saying. His decision to move the NGT has created mild tremors in BJP circles.