Tacit support of politicians in Bengal

A month ago, about 50 families at Chandannagar near Kolkata had the scare of their lives. Their houses, located near the embankment of the Hooghly river, partially collapsed, while the soil on the strip between the houses and the riverbank sank. Most houses suffered serious damage, but there were no casualties.

The matter was brought to the notice of state government and a three-member team from the Geological Survey of India found that the illegal sand mining on the opposite bank of the river, at Bhatpara in North 24-Parganas district, had triggered the damage.

Subsequently, state irrigation and waterways minister Rajib Banerjee sent a note to chief minister Mamata Banerjee seeking action to curb illegal sand quarries and tighten norms for awarding sand mining.

There was no response from the chief minister's office.

Now in the wake of the Durga Shakti Nagpal episode-Nagpal was suspended as sub-divisional magistrate of Gautam Buddh Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh allegedly for taking strict action against the local sand mafia-Rajib Banerjee hopes the CM will look into his proposal. Among other things, he has suggested setting up an expert committee to come out with the measures to stop illegal sand-mining.

According to data available with the Indian Bureau of Mines, the value of minor mineral production (which includes silica sand) in the state was an estimated Rs 145 crore in FY12.

Officials in the state commerce and industry department said sand production is very low as the riverbeds of Hooghly and Icchamati are mostly composed of soft rock such as clay, shale and sandstone. "Whether it's legal or illegal, apart from the bank of Hooghly river, sand mining take place on the riverbanks of Damodar, Ajay, in the southwestern districts of Bardhman, Birbhum, Bankura, which are full of silica sand," says an official.

Those in the business of sand corroborates this. "We have to participate in the tender organised by the district administration concerned to get a lease. But for others, you just pay an amount to the local political leaders to extract sand. Earlier, it was the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and now it is Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders. And this is why you will see so many political party-run syndicates in Kolkata and suburbs, which sells this illegally procured sand," says a senior manager of a Kolkata-based company that supplies construction materials.

Due to the tendering process followed by Eastern Coalfields, only registered companies in the state are suppliers to the public sector firm in Ranigunj and Asansol areas where huge amount of sand is used for sand stowing after underground mining of coal. However, when it comes to sand supply to real estate projects, political party-controlled syndicates takes the lead.

If it is Noida in Uttar Pradesh, it is Rajarhat-Newtown in West Bengal. With CPI(M) going out of power, it is now the TMC-controlled syndicates that supply illegally procured building materials. Opposition parties and local builders have often alleged that Sabyasachi Dutta, TMC's MLA from New Town (formerly Rajarhat), for indirectly running most of these syndicates.

However, Dutta insists there is no illegal mining: "There are no illegal activities and syndicates are only means of providing employment to local youths."