Constructing a political narrative with sand, over its illegal mining and mafia

Earlier than 2005, sand was a commodity that got here very low cost. However with the growth in actual property enterprise, and several other street initiatives coming to the state, the demand for sand rose manifold catching the eye of each politicians and the mafia.

It was in 2007 that the then SAD-BJP authorities began auctioning the mines for the primary time. Since then, sand is a matter confronting each authorities within the state.

Whereas Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has already tried to grab the problem from the opposition events by slashing the costs of sand from Rs 9 per cubic ft to Rs 5.5 on the pit-head, state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu has been claiming that it’s nonetheless being bought at costs increased than that introduced by the federal government.

Sidhu has promised a plan to not solely scale back the value of sand but additionally make a number of thousand crores for the state exchequer by regulating it by the use of his Punjab Mannequin. However, Aam Aadmi Celebration (AAP) convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has acknowledged that if his occasion is voted to energy, it could put an finish to the unlawful mining, make Rs 20,000 crore for the state yearly and fund the welfare schemes within the state, together with the Rs 1,000-monthly money switch to ladies.

Channi has additionally been saying that he wished to make sand freed from price however he couldn’t achieve this because the earlier authorities had allotted contracts of mines for 3 years. He has indicated that when the contracts expire, he might give it freed from price.

Sidhu, in his Punjab Mannequin has been saying that the sand enterprise was being run by the mafia and benefitting a couple of highly effective folks within the system. He mentioned there are about 102 mining websites throughout 14 districts of Punjab with an estimated demand of sand of two.4-3 crore tonnes yearly. This could possibly be massively capitalised for income era and employment in the advantage of the state and its folks instantly.

The Sand Mining Coverage if carried out in a systemic vogue has the potential of producing income upto Rs 2000-3000 crore within the subsequent 5 years with a possible of making 5,000 direct jobs and 15,000-20,000 oblique jobs within the sector.

A floor actuality test, nevertheless, has revealed that the contractors weren’t capable of present sand at Rs 5.5 per cubic foot but as they mentioned that they had given the cash to the state authorities for the contract and it was not potential for them to slash the costs. A contractor in Gurdaspur, nevertheless, mentioned that he was promoting sand for Rs 5.5 per cubic foot solely however the costs of transport had been excessive.

“As an illustration, if I ship 25-tonne truck from Pathankot to Bathinda, it can price Rs 50,000. Rs 30,000 is the price of transport. The place are the contractors to be blamed?”he requested including that costs of fantastic sand — scooped from the river mattress — and coarse sand — produced after washing the crushing of gravel — had been totally different. “That is apparent. When there may be labour concerned then the coarse sand can be dearer.”

The alleged political-sand mafia nexus figures within the political narrative of the state. AAP co-incharge Raghav Chadha had raided the constituency of CM, Chamkaur Sahib, final month and acknowledged that unlawful mining was rampant within the space. He had acknowledged that mafia was lively within the phase which was by the way the realm of the CM. A day later, Kejriwal had referred to as Channi a “thief” who was engaged in unlawful sand mining. Earlier than this, former chief minister Amarinder Singh had created a stir in political circles by saying it publicly that he had an inventory of Congress legislators engaged in unlawful sand mining. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had taken a dig on the Congress and hit out at Amarinder for not taking motion on such MLAs.

SAD additionally faces allegations on sand mining account because it had been allotting mines on reverser bidding and incomes solely upto Rs 30 crore for state exchequer yearly. Amarinder’s authorities modified the system to progressive bidding and the state has been incomes about Rs 300 crore yearly.