Chandigarh, Feb 16 (PTI) Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Thursday accused the AAP government in Punjab of renewing the mining contract of two people facing charges of illegal mining.

Reacting to the accusation related to one of them, AAP spokesperson Neel Garg said he got a stay from the high court against the cancellation of his mining contract.

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Garg said the AAP government is more stringent than any previous government and 84 FIRs have been registered so far against the mining mafia.

Majithia said the Bhagwant Mann government renewed the mining contract for Mohali and Rupnagar districts of the contractor who was facing four cases of illegal mining and a CBI inquiry.

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The former minister added that the person's mining contract had been terminated in December last year.

The SAD leader further alleged that the state government also renewed the mining contract of another person, who operates in Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Nawanshahr and was also facing charges of illegal mining.

"It is now clear that the 'Mann Sarkar' is collecting money to fund election campaigns of the AAP at the cost of Punjab's exchequer," Majithia said.

He claimed that it was for this reason that the AAP government has deliberately not come out with a mining policy.

Dubbing Majithia's accusations as frivolous, AAP leader Garg said the mining contract for Mohali and Rupnagar was given by the previous governments.

The AAP government had cancelled his contract but he got a stay from the high court, Garg said.

He also accused Majithia of misleading the people of Punjab with his "scurrilous allegations".

Majithia also accused the AAP government of indulging in a Rs 400 crore scam by collecting royalty from vehicles carrying sand and gravel into Punjab from other states.

He asked how only a fraction of the Rs 7 per cubic feet royalty announced by the government on sand was collected by the state government.

"As many as 2,000 trucks filled with sand and gravel enter Punjab from neighbouring states every day. At least half of the royalty due from them is being appropriated by AAP," Majithia alleged.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)