Lucknow, August 24, 2025 – A fresh audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pulled back the curtain on widespread illegal mining in Uttar Pradesh during Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s first term from 2017 to 2022. The report, tabled in the state assembly on August 12, points to shocking lapses like ambulances and bulldozers being used to haul minerals, fake vehicle registrations, and a complete breakdown in monitoring. This has led to huge revenue losses for the state and raised big questions about the government’s “zero tolerance” stance on corruption. With a financial hit of ₹784.54 crore, the findings have sparked outrage from opposition parties and calls for accountability.
The CAG’s performance audit, titled “Mining in Uttar Pradesh and Socio-economic Impact of Illegal Mining,” looked at how the state handled mining leases, transportation, and oversight in 17 districts. These areas include Bundelkhand hotspots like Chitrakoot, Fatehpur, Hamirpur, Banda, and Mahoba; western UP districts such as Baghpat, Bulandshahr, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Saharanpur, Sambhal, Shamli; central regions like Kanpur, Prayagraj, Kaushambi; and eastern spots like Siddharthnagar and Sonbhadra. Minerals involved ranged from limestone and granite to sand and coarse sand – all key to construction but often dug up without proper checks.
One of the most eye-opening parts of the report is how over 83,000 “unfit” vehicles got transit passes to carry minerals. 407 ambulances were listed as transporting 11,809 cubic meters of stuff with 767 passes issued. Then there were nine hearse vans hauling 485 cubic meters, 1,621 bulldozers, 3,625 buses, 29,525 e-rickshaws, 11 fire tenders, and even 34,742 motorcycles. Some of these vehicles were shown making impossible numbers of trips – like a three-wheeler doing 47 runs in a day or a motor car clocking 122. Auditors say this was likely a trick to cover up overloading and illegal digs, where extra minerals were sneaked out beyond lease limits.
It gets worse. Out of these, 85,928 vehicles had bogus registration numbers. About 81,280 weren’t even in the government’s Vahan database, 3,883 had plates with fewer than seven digits, and 765 had just numbers – no letters. Leaseholders generated 448,637 electronic transit passes (e-MM-11 forms) for these fake rides, “moving” 2,451,021 cubic meters of minerals. In some cases, the same pass was reused for different vehicles, pointing to a system ripe for abuse. The CAG blamed the Directorate of Geology and Mining (DGM) and district officers for not using tech to spot this. They could have linked their portal to Vahan for real-time checks, but didn’t – leading to what the report calls a “monitoring failure at both state and district levels.”
Illegal mining wasn’t just about sneaky transport, it happened right outside approved lease areas. The audit found 45 leaseholders digging up nearly 269 hectares without permission. In places like Chitrakoot, Hamirpur, and Sonbhadra, mining went on without any leases at all, covering 30.4 hectares. Brick kiln owners broke rules too, but faced no penalties. This not only cheated the state out of royalties but also wrecked the environment, rivers got deeper from sand scooping, farmland turned barren, and water sources dried up.
The socio-economic toll is hard to ignore. Illegal mining hits poor communities hardest. In Bundelkhand, where drought is common, unauthorized digs make water scarcity worse, hurting farmers and daily wage workers. It also breeds crime, with mining mafias controlling areas and scaring off locals. The report notes how this undermines trust in government, as people see powerful folks getting away with it while ordinary folks suffer. Revenue losses mean less money for schools, roads, and health in these backward districts. CAG pegs the total financial mess at ₹784.54 crore, covering unpaid royalties, penalties that weren’t collected, and other leaks.
Despite Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s loud and strict orders to curb illegal mining, the CAG’s damning report lays bare a shameful lack of oversight by district officers and other officials during his first term. The use of ambulances, bulldozers, and even motorcycles to transport minerals, alongside 85,928 fake vehicle registrations, screams negligence. Officers failed to enforce basic checks, ignoring available tech like the Vahan database that could’ve stopped fraudulent transit passes. This wasn’t just a slip-up-it was a systemic collapse, letting mining mafias run wild while the state lost ₹784 crore and communities suffered environmental ruin. The Chief Minister’s tough talk clearly didn’t reach the ground, exposing a gap between his orders and the officers’ inaction that demands accountability.
In response, the mining department admitted the issues in July 2023 and said they’re fixing them by linking to the Vahan API to block passes for wrong vehicles. District officers like Vikas Singh Parimar from Hamirpur told reporters, “We are aware of the CAG report, and are working to fix the issues. We will also respond to the queries raised. In Hamirpur, coarse sand is mainly being transported, and we are addressing the loopholes.” Ranbir Kumar Singh from Chitrakoot added, “The CAG audit report covers the period from 2017 to 2022. Since then, many improvements have been made. We are preparing our response to it.”
Looking back, illegal mining has plagued UP for years. Under previous Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party governments, it was a big scandal, with CBI probes into sand mining rackets. When Yogi took over in 2017, he promised to end it, canceling old leases and bringing in e-tendering. By 2022, the state claimed to have seized thousands of vehicles and fined crores. But the CAG says these steps fell short, with tech not used properly and officers turning a blind eye.
Fast forward to now, in Yogi’s second term, the government has ramped up efforts. In July 2025, they rolled out AI and drones to spot illegal digs, blacklisting over 21,477 vehicles. Last December, Yogi himself ordered strict action in river areas, pushing for better tech enforcement. These moves come after the audit period, but critics say they’re reactive, not preventive.
The report’s recommendations are straightforward – Tighten the e-transit system, link it to national databases, and train officers better. CAG wants regular checks on leases and harsh penalties for fakes. If followed, it could plug the holes and bring in more revenue, UP’s mining sector already fetches billions, but losses eat into that.
This isn’t the first CAG slap for UP. Older reports from 2020 flagged similar issues in Yamuna mining, with fines recommended but not always collected. A 2022 report blasted fund mismanagement, poking holes in the BJP’s clean image. Now, with elections less than two years away, this could fuel political fire. Will Yogi’s team turn it around, or will the opposition use it to hammer home corruption claims?
For locals in affected areas, it’s more than politics. In Sonbhadra, where forests meet mines, illegal operations have led to health woes from dust and water pollution. Farmers in Saharanpur complain of eroded riverbanks flooding fields. The socio-economic angle in the report stresses how this widens inequality, big players profit, while communities pay the price.
As UP pushes for growth, fixing mining is key. The state sits on rich deposits, but without clean ops, it’s a lost chance. The CAG report is a wake-up call: Time to mine responsibly, or keep losing ground.
