All’s not well in the Himachal Pradesh Congress! At least that appears from the speech of Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri at a public function as he sounded “helpless” over the activities of the mining mafia in his home district Una.
Pointing towards top district administration officials sitting on the stage, Deputy Chief Minister Agnihotri, who is a three-term MLA from Haroli, said, “To begin with, you stop the movement of tippers (trucks used to carry mined material) in the district from 5 pm to 9 pm. Innumerable tippers are operating in mining projects and people, especially children, are unable to walk on the roads due to dust and other reasons.”
Agnihotri cited his visit to an acquaintance’s residence, saying 15 tippers crossed the road next to the house within no time. “People have to move out of their houses…. At least fix time periods such as 7 to 9.30 in the morning and 6 to 9 in the evening when no tippers would ply on roads,” said a seemingly angry Deputy Chief Minister.
However, Agnihotri didn’t name any mining operator or company whom he was miffed at, nor did he point fingers at any politician of his own party who was calling the shots in the mining business. “The mining mafia has turned the district follow. What will we preserve for our future generations,” he said.
The Deputy Chief Minister also called for concrete action against those behind the ‘chitta’ business, saying the perpetrators should be taught a befitting lesson so that they quit the illegal trade one for all. “We have to make the district ‘chitta’-free,” he said.
There are five Assembly constituencies in Una district and four of these — Haroli, Chintpurni, Gagret and Kutlehar — are represented in the Himachal Assembly by Congress MLAs. Sudarshan Singh Babloo is the MLA from Chintpurni, Rakesh Kalia from Gagret and Vivek Sharma from Kutlehar. The Una seat was won by prominent Congress leader Satpal Raizada in 2017, but he lost to BJP’s Satpal Singh Satti in 2022.
From stage, ‘helpless’ Himachal Deputy CM Agnihotri calls out mining mafia for plundering Una
