Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Wednesday said that the state government will evolve a mechanism to check corrupt practices associated with the misuse of transit passes in the transportation of minerals to prevent royalty losses and maintain the pace of developmental works in the state. He issued directions to check corrupt practices while presiding over a meeting of the Industries Department here.

The Chief Minister expressed concern over reports indicating the use of fake transit passes on multiple occasions for mineral transportation, resulting in significant royalty losses to the state exchequer.

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To address this, the state government had earlier introduced Rule 81A, which mandates a deduction of Rs 80 as royalty and Rs 20 as penalty per tonne from the panchayats and other executing agencies undertaking developmental works, in case transit passes are not available.

However, the implementation of Rule 81A is currently under stay by the High Court, and the matter is scheduled for hearing on April 25.

In view of the situation and to ensure the timely execution of developmental works, the Chief Minister instructed the Industries Department to explore all possible solutions and alternatives in this regard.

A delegation of PRI representatives had also met the Chief Minister on Tuesday, urging him to address the issue.