- Thursday, February 27, 2025
Singh is a six-time parliamentarian from the state of Uttar Pradesh representing prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
By: Shubham Ghosh
MORE trouble was brewing for Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the outgoing chief of India’s wrestling federation who has been accused of sexually harassing women wrestlers, as India’s National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered an investigation into accusations against the former’s company of causing damage to a river in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh through illegal mining of sand and transportation of minerals.
Singh is also a six-time parliamentarian from the state representing prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which currently dominates the state’s politics.
According to a report by India Today, the NGT’s principal bench on Wednesday (2) set up a joint committee comprising besides representatives from the Indian ministry of environment, forest and climate change; Central Pollution Control Board; National Mission for Clean Ganga and Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board, the district magistrate of Gonda, Singh’s birthplace which he also previously represented in the parliament and where his company is located.
The committee has been instructed to meet within a week, the report added.
Singh has been in the eye of a political and legal storm over charges of sexual harassment by women wrestlers. Protests put up by some of India’s top wrestlers, including those who have won medals at the Olympics, fuelled the agitation against the outgoing chief of the Wrestling Federation of India and even international reactions poured in.
The United World Wrestling took notice of the scuffle involving the protesting wrestlers of India and the police that resulted in the athletes’ detention in May and warned that if the Indian federation did not hold elections within 45 days, the South Asian nation would be suspended.
The election is set to be held on August 7 following a series of postponements.
The body said “the committee might particularly clarify compliance with Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guidelines 2016 and Enforcement & Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining, 2020, including remediation/rehabilitation of mined areas and damage caused to River Saryu”.
It also said the state pollution control board will be a nodal agency for coordination and compliance.
“The grievances in the present application are regarding illegal mining by Mr. Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Member of Parliament from Kesar Ganj, in villages Majharath, Jaitpur, Nawabganj, Tehsil Tarbganj, District Gonda, illegal transportation of the extracted minor minerals by overloaded trucks numbering more than 700 every day, storage, and illegal sale of minor minerals measuring about 20 lakh cubic meters and damage caused to Patpar Ganj Bridge and Road by overloaded trucks,” said the NGT order, according to the India Today report.
Singh has reportedly faced several criminal cases in the past but had been acquitted, as per the affidavit filed by him after the 2019 general elections. He has been representing Uttar Pradesh’s Kaiserganj constituency since the 2009 elections.
