Bhopal, Mar 17: The opposition members in the State Assembly today grilled the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government for spurt in illegal mining, politicisation of cultural institutions and ignoring the interests of mediapersons.

Participating in the budgetary demands of about Rs 110 crore pertaining to Mineral Resources, Culture and Public Relations departments held by Laxmikant Sharma, the opposition members said the state was losing revenue of crores of rupees due to illegal mining of mineral resources with the mining mafia active under the patronage of ruling BJP leaders.

The BJP members objected to the opposition's charge that influential BJP leaders and few people close to the Chief Minister were engaged in illegal mining causing loss to the state exchequer.

Dr Sajjan Singh Verma (Cong) criticised the government for allegedly politicising the Kalidas Academy of Ujjain by including BJP leaders in place of experts in the committee. He suggested that an annual award of Rs 1 lakh should be instituted for budding musicians in memory of noted musician Kumar Gandharv.

Brijendra Singh Rathore (Cong) lamented the decline in the standard of cultural festivals and said the famous Orchha festival had been discontinued. Drastic increase in entry fees at monuments would not attract tourists, he said. Dr Verma, Arif Aqueel (Cong) and Ramlakhan Sharma (CPI-M) pulled up the government for not coming up with the new policy for public relations. ''There was no advertisement policy and publications close to the ruling BJP and RSS were provided advertisements liberally. Norms should be fixed in granting government advertisements'', they added.

Dr Verma and other members criticised the government for allocating prime land in Arera Hills in the state capital, reserved for government institutions, to four media organisations, which, according to Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Das Munshi, were not entitled for benefits under any government scheme. The allottees include people close to influential BJP leaders, including the Chief Minister, he said.

Aqueel said many publications of foreign countries were benefited by the state government advertisements. The aim of setting up multi-arts complex Bharat Bhavan had been negated as it was not encouraging cultural activities, he added. Ramlakhan Sharma said freedom fighters were not getting their due respect in public functions. Vanshmani Prasad Verma(SP) said wanton exploitation of mineral resources in Singrauli area had caused manifold problems with environmental pollution, agriculture fields turning infertile, river water unfit for human and cattle consumption and wells going dry.

Shankarlal Tiwari (BJP) lauded the minister for including tehsil-level journalists also for accreditation. Rajendra Shukla, Dharmu Rai (both BJP), Dilip Singh Gurjar and Pradeep Jaiswal (Cong) and Kishor Samrite (SP) also took part in the discussions.