Farce
/fa:s/
noun
noun: farce; plural noun: farces
a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations.
Hello,
Remember, the definition of the word ‘farce’ as you read this investigation.
The Uttarakhand government has handed over its duties and powers to police and collect taxes from miners to private players. Companies are collecting royalty on gravel, sand and stones mined from rivers, and are purportedly in-charge of regulating illegal mining in the ecologically-fragile Himalayan state.
Wait. That’s not all. And, yes, do read this bit one word at a time. The state has decided that the companies hired to collect taxes from riverbed miners might as well become miners too.
You got that right. A company could now be mining the riverbeds in the hill state and collecting taxes from other miners – its competitors.
Hold on. There is yet more to this tale. The state government was supposed to spend money earned from river mining to protect forests. That was a precondition imposed by the Supreme Court while exempting river mining in forest areas from another levy called the Net Present Value. Well, the BJP’s government in Uttarakhand has been diverting these funds in violation of the Supreme Court orders, our investigation found.
The Union government (you got that right, also BJP) has known about this misappropriation of funds for a while, we found. But it has turned a blind eye to the Uttarakhand government's continued transgressions.
Go back to the meaning of the word ‘farce’: ludicrously improbable situations.
Next, go read the story by our colleague Tapasya, who travelled to Uttarakhand to get out all documentary evidence.
Click here to read the full story.
PS. Our two editors, Anoop and Furquan have been busy editing two other investigations in parallel, so it fell upon me to write to you today. They will be back by next week to speak to you in a more familiar tone.
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With warm regards
Nitin
Founding Editor