Coming days will be marked by hectic activity in sand mining
business in Madhya Pradesh. Lease periods of a majority of the
state’s 1700 sand mines have lapsed in March. State
Government’s liberal mining policy, announced on March 12, has
ensured that the multi-billion rupee sand mining business attracts
more players for bidding. A pleasant sensation is running through
the veins of those who control, monitor and protect the sand
mafias spread across the state. These include ruling party
politicians and personnel of police, forest, mining and revenue
departments. Their cosy nexus is geared up to jockeying the
favourite ones for cutting best possible deals in nearly Rs 70,000
crore sand mining trade. Stake is higher this time around. The
state government has not only expanded the area of mining but
has also set a highly ambitious target for revenue. To meet the
target, significant changes have been made in the policy to
facilitate mining in larger areas.
A taste of the things to come is apparent in the audio conversation
between BJP MLA from Bhind Narayan Singh Kushwaha and a
senior mining officer. Kushwaha is heard demanding Rs one lakh
from the officer. The audio went viral on March 18. The BJP MLA
is a protégé of union mining and labour minister Narendra Singh
Tomar, who is alleged to be the most powerful protector of the
sand mafias in the Chambal-Gwalior region. Just how audacious
the illegal sand minors have become under political patronage in
the region can be gauged by a recent revelation of a temporary
bridge built on the Sindh River to transport illegally mined sand.
On March 20, the bridge collapsed due to overweight of the sand
traffic. Then only the Bhind district administration woke up to the
seriousness of the illegal mining. The collector and SP with a large
posse of police rushed to the spot. , However, unsurprisingly, no
one was arrested.
Madhya Pradesh has become a veritable El Dorado for sand
mafias in the last 10 years of the BJP rule. Illegal sand mining
business is estimated at Rs 20,000 crore. The state government
gets peanuts in royalty compared to the stupendously huge profit
the mafias manage to pocket. Sand mine contractors bid for mines
through forming groups or companies and sometimes in
individual capacity. Cartelisation of contractors is also a common
practice in Chambal and Gwalior region. The cartelisation ensures
that the auction process remains under control of a group of
contractors. The most controversial company in this field whose
name is often tossed around in political discourse on illegal sand
mining is the Bhopal-based Shiva construction company. This is
because the company’s promoters are allegedly linked to the
family of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
The company’s rampant mining operation in Nasrullahgang area
in Budni assembly constituency of the chief minister is frequently
cited by the opposition as a proof of the administrative
connivance with the sand mafias at the top level.
In 2012, a Congress MLAs’ committee did a spot survey of the
company’s operation. The panel found that in Sehore district's
Nasrullaganj area, the Shiva Company had illegally carried out
activities in ten villages, even though permission was granted
only in four villages.
The then leader of opposition Ajay Singh alleged in the state
assembly that Shiva Construction Company was granted
permission for sand mining in 16 hectares area in four villages
but it had carried out mining operations in 377 hectares area,
causing a threat to the course of the river and environment.
The Congress committee’s spot survey followed a senior mining
department officer’s report. Subsequently, a show cause notice
was served by the mining department on December 2011 to the
Shiva Corporation. This company was alleged to have illegally
mined sand estimated worth Rs 378 crore. Within days of the
show cause notice, the concerned officer was transferred. The
Shiva Company has thrived in the last five years even as the fine
slapped on it for violation of lease terms remains unrecovered.
Sand mining is a relatively low-risk and low-capital business
compared to mining of major minerals. Therefore, there are no
big players in the sand mining trade.
Big players are in mining of major minerals such as coal, iron,
bauxite etc. Two most controversial mining barons in the state
are Sudhir Sharma of SR group and BJP MLA from
Vijayraghavgarh Sanjay Pathak. Sharma is in jail since January
2014 for his neck-deep involvement in the professional
examination board (PEB) scam. His transformation from a
private school teacher to a billionaire power-broker within a
decade of the BJP rule in the state bears inglorious testimony to
the vice-like grip of the mafias in the government. Sanjay Pathak
had won 2008 assembly election on Congress ticket. At that time
he had declared his assets worth Rs 34 crore. In 2013, he showed
assets worth Rs 141crore while filing nomination for the
assembly poll. Within six months of winning on the Congress
ticket, the 43-year-old politician-businessman from Katni district
resigned from the party. He had wisely anticipated that BJP is all
set to form government at the Centre under Narendra Modi’s
leadership. He returned to the state assembly on BJP ticket.
Mining department sources say illegal sand mining is largely
politician-controlled trade. In almost all districts, ruling party
MPs, MLAs and other leaders handpick their acolytes to bid for
mining. In some cases, family members act as the front for elected
representatives too. Sand mines are the chief minister’s one of the
most potent instruments to win loyalty of local BJP leaders across
the state. That is why, the chief minister office (CMO) virtually
controls the bidding process through the chief minister’s most
trusted IAS officer SK Mishra. He is secretary to the chief
minister as well as public relations commissioner. Till, 2012,
Mishra was the secretary, mining. But the nationwide outrage in
the wake of the murder of IPS officer Narendra Kumar Singh on
March 8, 2012 forced the chief minister to shift Mishra from the
mining department. The raging controversy had brought to the
fore how the then mining secretary favoured chosen few in giving
mining contracts at the behest of the chief minister.
However, Mishra still holds sway in the mining business.
Although incumbent mining secretary Shiv Shekhar Shukla has
sought to bring transparency in the bidding process, sand mafias
are confident that it is Mishra who still calls the shot in contract
allotment.
Shukla, another trusted IAS officer of the chief minister, is hopeful
that the e-auction process introduced in the new sand mining
policy will curb practice of illegal mining to a great extent. On
March 21, Shukla told prospective sand mine bidders through
videoconferencing that “through the new technique the auction
will be open to all and entire process will be transparent.”
However, those in the know of the government functioning are
sceptical of Shukla’s claim.
Right to information (RTI) activist Ajay Dubey, who has brought
to the fore many a wrongdoing in the mining business, says the
mafias are too well entrenched in the business to be weeded out
through e-auction unless the chief minister shows strong political
will to clamp down on them.
Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Arun
Yadav says the policy is fundamentally flawed as it allows the
government to cherry pick prospective bidders.
Mafias in connivance with ruling party politicians and
bureaucrats have been mercilessly plundering the state’s river
beds. Rampant sand mining has posed existential crisis for over a
dozen rivers in the state. State’s bio-diversity is in serious danger.
Concerned over the alarming degradation of environment due to
untrammelled sand mining, The National Green Tribunal (NGT)
in August last year ordered a blanket ban on sand mining. The
Madhya Pradesh government cried foul over the NGT verdict,
arguing that this will badly hit the construction industry. State
government’s plea against the NGT ruling is under the Supreme
Court consideration.
Now the state government has come out with a new sand mining
policy which not only subverts the NGT ruling but also invites
mafias to dredge and transport sand from across the state’s rivers
with greater impunity.
The state cabinet on March 12 approved a Sand Mining Policy
2015, notifying an additional 3,000 hectares of area for quarrying
to bring down market prices of sand and make it available at
cheap rates. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government has given a
free-will to rural inhabitants to obtain and use sand free of cost.
Persons from rural areas need not purchase sand anymore.
Health minister and government spokesman Narottam Mishra
says under the new policy state mining corporation will
undertake sand mining throughout all tehsils of 18 districts.
"Mining Corporation at present is engaged in sand mining from
only 53 tehsils of those 18 districts. New policy gives the
corporation excavation rights in all tehsils of the districts," Mishra
explained. "In the remaining 33 districts, collectors will auction
sand mines through e-auction."
The corporation will also give quarrying contracts through e-
auction. Bidders for this process under provisions of the Sand
Mining Policy will have to deposit only 10% as security deposit as
against earlier 25%. "E-auction and rationalization of security
deposit amount will simplify bidding process and bring
transparency," Narottam Mishra claimed
New policy has abolished provision which earlier prohibited
another sand mine within 10 km radius sanctioned to the state
mining corporation. Provision to charge royalty equal to that
charged by the corporation has also been abolished on the
grounds that this will make sand cheaper to the consumers.
Although environmental clearance is still mandatory, the policy
provides for optimum mining of sand in the state.. Government
argues this will make more sand available at affordable rates in
open market and bring more revenue to the exchequer.
As of now, the district collectors auction, operate and control
1,237 sand mines on an area of 2,677.554 hectares. Of them 1,181
mines on 2,070.01 hectares are of less than 5 hectare while 55
mines are of 607.54 hectare of more than 5 hectare.
The State Mineral Development Corporation operates, auctions
and controls 450 sand mines. Of them 285 sand mines of less than
5 hectares while 165 are of more than 5 hectares.
Under revised plan the sand mines will be of 5 hectares or more
with a total area of 9570 hectares across the state. However the
number of mines will be 1,009. The collectors will now operate
586 sand mines while the corporation will run 423 mines in 5,033
hectares.
The government has envisaged revenue of Rs 880 crore against
existing Rs 180 crore from auction of 2.28 crore cubic meter of
sand each year.
The corporation will levy Rs 125 per cubic meter as royalty and
administrative expenses while collectors will levy equal royalty
from an expected quantity of 6.80 crore cubic meter against the
total available quantity of 2.28 crore cubic meter earlier.
Insiders of the sand mining business contend that the state
government’s extraordinary generosity towards sand miners will
make competition in the business more violent. Average two
persons reportedly get killed per day in violence related to illegal
sand mining activity in the state. In 2013-14, as many as 715
persons lost their life in clashes among mafias and with police. In
2014-15, the death toll rose to 457 till December 31, 2014. The
brutal killing of IPs officer Narendra Kumar Singh in Morena
district on March 8,2013 had caused nationwide uproar. Singh,
who was SDO (police), was run over by the driver of a tractor
trolley laden with illegal sand. His death brought illegal sand
mining in Madhya Pradesh in national focus but the outrage
petered down with passage of days. Incidents of attacks on police,
forest, revenue officers and personnel are quite frequent in the
state, particularly in Gwalior-Chambal region. But they seldom
attract attention of the national media. In December last year a
police constable was injured when sand mafia attacked a mining
inspection team after it seized tractor-trolleys allegedly carrying
sand without valid documents near a village in Hoshangabad
district.
The team, led by mining inspector Archana Choudhary, spotted
the sand-laden vehicles and stopped them for checking. As the
team was taking the tractor-trolleys to Dehat Police Station, the
attackers pelted stone, causing injury to constable Hemant Raj, he
said. Such violent attacks on government personnel are more
frequent in the Chambal region but are highly underreported.
Reports on the nexus of mafia-politicians-bureaucrats are even
rarer in the media. The nexus is so well-entrenched in political life
of the state that it has ceased to shock people.
The new policy is likely to add more violence to the gory business
of illegal sand mining because notorious dons from Uttar Pradesh,
Rajasthan and Delhi are reportedly eyeing the lucrative business.
Coming days are crucial for sand mining as fresh bidding for
mines is set to start after April. Most of the sand mining leases
have elapsed this month.
Madhya Pradesh Congress committee president Arun Yadav says
the new mining policy will further strengthen the grip of the
nexus on mining business.
‘ Sand mafias influence the bidding process and the government
succumbs to their pressure. Since ruling party politicians provide
protection to mafias, the government does not act against them.
As a result, the state exchequer suffers revenue loss to the tune of
hundreds of crore of rupees”, he alleges.
Staggering figure of non-recovery of fines on the sand mining
companies corroborate PCC chief’s allegations. In two of the 51
districts in the state—Sehore and Mandla—alone the
administration has failed to recover Rs 1300 crore as fine slapped
on sand miners for violating the lease terms. In almost all districts
50 to 100 cases each are pending against sand miners but the
nexus of mafia-politician-bureaucrat manages to scuttle punitive
action against the offenders.
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