In Madhya Pradesh, BJP and Cong bury heads in sand over illegal mining

Voters in Madhya Pradesh seem preoccupied by other things, despite the harm to the environment

Bandra Bhan is a place in Hoshangabad district where the longest tributary of the Narmada river,Tawa, joins it after flowing for 172 kilometre from the Satpura Range in Betul. It is a picturesque spot, with potential to be a tourist destination. Instead, it is a hub of illegal sand mining.  

Kilometre after kilometre of the river bed is covered with shining white sand which is extracted for commercial use. The entire road which adjoins the river is dotted with huge piles of the extracted sand, waiting to be transported.

After nightfall is when the under-construction highway between the state capital Bhopal and Hoshangabad comes alive, teeming with trucks laden with sand, some of it illegally extracted. Though sand mining is rampant in almost all parts of the state, it is a veritable frenzy in the river beds which dry quickly after the monsoon. During the monsoon, the mines are closed.

According to state government figures, Madhya Pradesh has around 1,266 sand mines of which 160-odd are on the Narmada river bed. The remaining 1,106 are on other rivers. In 2016-17, the state earned a royalty of Rs 2.4 billion from sand mining, a figure that is projected to fall to Rs 2 billion in 2017-18.

In the 2008 and 2013 elections, illegal sand mining featured prominently in the campaigns of both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress Party. In this campaign, however, neither party has raised it, despite the harmful impact on the environment and the economic loss to the state exchequer. The reason, explained Vinayak Parihar, a social activist who campaigns against the mafia, is guilt. Parihar said that leaders from both parties have themselves been found to be involved in the activity. “Tickets have been given by both the parties to people who have been accused of illegal sand mining,” he said.  

For the ordinary person, the impact of the illegal mining is hard to feel in a tangible sense, happening it does mostly in remote areas with little or no habitation. Opposition to it is also muted because it provides some youths at least with jobs in a state there is desperation over the jobs shortage. In fact, this correspondent was restrained from talking to people living in huts alongside the mines mainly because young men had found employment in the mines.

“It does not impact the common man and, moreover, local issues have dominated this time more than any pan-state factor, apart from matters related to agriculture,” said a local expert. 

But that doesn’t make it all right. Parihar points out that, according to the Ministry of Environment and Forests’ guidelines, contractors and miners are allowed to dig up to three metres in depth. In reality, they dig almost 10 times the prescribed depth to extract sand and sometimes even install heavy duty water pumps to drain water from the sand, in violation of National Green Tribunal rules.

“The guidelines state that heavy duty machines shouldn’t be used for sand extraction from river beds and that most of the work should be done manually, but in most places, big heavy excavators are used to mine the sand,” said Parihar. 

Nor is dumping of extracted sand allowed on the river bed but that too, he said, is openly flouted by most miners. 

The miners are expected to pay a royalty of Rs 100-150 per cubic metre of sand extracted. Instead, they indulge in massive under-reporting, causing a loss to the exchequer. “In many cases, the royalty for one truck is paid while the sand equivalent to four trucks is extracted,” said local journalist Nilesh Chauhan. 

The Congress has alleged that in the last three years 28,000 cases of illegal mining in Madhya Pradesh have been registered and 528 vehicles impounded. This may seem a large figure but activists say it is just the tip of the iceberg; the real figure is higher. 

There is more. Anyone who tries to stop the mafia faces their wrath. There have been 55 incidents of the sand mining mafia attacking government officials and policemen trying to stop them in the past couple of years, according to local reports. 

The latest was in September when a 60-year-old deputy ranger of the forest department was crushed to death by a tractor carrying illegally mined sand in Morena district. 

While not making it a major election issue, both parties mention illegal sand mining in their manifestos. In its ‘Vachan Patra’, the Congress has vowed to bring in a new mining policy while empowering local panchayats to award mining rights. It has also promised to get all cases of illegal sand mining investigated through a competent authority. The BJP has offered to start satellite-based tracking of illegal sand mines and set up an inter-departmental task force under the chief secretary to better coordinate action. 

Parihar is unimpressed. “How far all these promises materialize remains to be seen because when it comes to a crackdown on illegal mining in Madhya Pradesh, particularly sand mining along river beds, both the Congress and BJP develop cold feet,” he said.

Last year, in an attempt to douse some of the criticism, the state government framed a new sand mining policy under which anyone could get a sand mine by applying through a dedicated portal. The applicants could pick the mine of their choice, pay the requisite royalty, and get an electronic pass.

Once they have shown the pass to the local sarpanch, no one can stop them. The pass is valid for four hours to prevent any malpractice and, because the royalty is paid in advance, the loss to the exchequer is expected to be minimal.

A part of the royalty, collected at the rate of Rs 125 per cubic metre, will be divided among the village panchayats for development work, the district collectors’ fund and for meeting the state Mining Corporation’s administrative expenses. The Corporation, along with the district collector, gives environmental clearances for the mines.

Another measure under the new state policy required that a GPS tracking system be implemented in all the mines to track the number of vehicles carrying sand. And the Corporation was to conduct a pre and post- monsoon survey of riverbeds to assess the exact quantity of sand collected.

The policy ran into trouble with critics and Congress leaders, however, who described it as yet another route for corruption. Given the powers the policy invests in the sarpanch and local authorities, they said, it was an invitation to pelf.

Opposition says mining rampant

• Opposition alleges that illegal sand mining is rampant in MP, particularly in dry river beds

• Madhya Pradesh has around 1,266 sand mines of which 160 are in the River Narmada and the rest on other rivers

• In 2016-17, the state collected a royalty of ~2.4 billion from sand mining which is projected to fall to 2 billion in 2017-18

• Congress alleges there have been 28,000 cases of illegal mining in the last three years 

• Local reports suggest 55 attacks by the mafia against policemen and enforcement officials in the past few years

Read our full coverage on Madhya Pradesh Assembly Elections 2018.