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Bharat Chauhan, 20, grew up listening to stories of illegal sand mining in Raipur village, on the banks of the Yamuna, along the Delhi-Noida border. Nine years ago, someone from his village allegedly started mining a barren piece of land, where the river had accumulated silt over the years.
During these years, the villager repeatedly robbed the land of its only asset-sand-and made fortunes, allegedly in connivance with the state administration. Though he is believed to be earning Rs 5-6 lakh a day, he is described as a small fish in a pond of hundreds.
"He has become so influential that the police refused to charge him for criminal conspiracy in the murder of my uncle Pale Ram, who stood against him and had filed several complaints with district authorities," alleges Chauhan. Raipur village is said to be one of the epicentres of illegal mining in Noida.
Ram's death would have gone unnoticed, had activists and the media not launched a renewed campaign against the sand mafia in the wake of Durga Shakti Nagpal's suspension last month.
Ram and Nagpal both tried to raise their voices against the mafia and were silenced at the very same time. While Ram was murdered on July 31, Nagpal, projected as an honest officer, was suspended on July 28.
Activists allege the Raipur incident is merely the tip of the iceberg. Illegal and organised sand mining is rampant across Noida and Greater Noida. Pockets in Haryana and Delhi have come under the scanner for such activities. Sales of illegal sand are difficult to calculate, but back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest it could be anywhere between Rs 100 crore and Rs 200 crore a month in Noida and Greater Noida alone.
But authorities feign ignorance to plunder. "Had we known where illegal mining was taking place, wouldn't we have taken action? The situation is not as gloomy as it is projected. Since January, we have conducted over 2,700 raids and collected Rs 7.2 crore of revenue in fines. A total of 39 criminal cases have been registered," Uttar Pradesh Geology and Mining Director Bhaskar Upadhyay said, emphatically adding, "Our targets are complete."
Sand from the Yamuna is sold in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, mainly for plastering walls. Each permit holder pays around Rs 20 crore annually to the Haryana government as licence fee. While Delhi doesn't allow mining, Uttar Pradesh has given 153 acres to a group of four-five individuals to mine sand.
Sand at the pit, from where it is actually extracted, is sold at Rs 17-18 per cubic ft; consumers buy this at Rs 30. To simplify, a mini truck of 90-100 cubic ft is sold at Rs 3,000 and a truck load of 20 tonnes is sold at Rs 25,000-30,000.
"It is sheer economics. Yamuna sand has inelastic demand; builders use it as a substitute for cement," said Chetan Agarwal, an activist who has worked to conserve the Aravali hills. "Whenever demand is high and supply is restricted, there are people looking for discounted supplies."
Sand thefts are of two types. Small players steal from river beds in the dead of the night, while big players allegedly mine at places other than authorised ones. Most big players do not report exact sales to avoid paying revenues to the exchequer and, instead, pocket the entire money. This allows them to sell sand at lower prices.
Manoj Mishra, an activist who works to save the Yamuna, blames real-estate activities in the National Capital Region (NCR) behind the matrix and the rise of organised mafia over the last decade and a half. His allegations are suggestive. After liberalisation and the government's decision to promote key sectors such as information technology, NCR has witnessed a mammoth rise in construction and infrastructure development.
But is real estate the only culprit?
The presumption of real estate growth behind the rise of sand mafia is unfortunate, says Anil Sharma, president of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CRDEAI) in NCR. "We are not the major consumer of fine sand; it is the contractors of infrastructure projects," he said, adding fine sand, extracted from river beds, constituted only one or one and half per cent of their entire construction material.
Ironically, CRDEAI is approaching a higher court against the August 5 decision of the National Green Tribunal to ban sand mining. "The ban might serve the populist purpose, but it is a retrograde move, as it harms the nation's growth," CREDAI Chairman Lailt Jain said in a statement.
Lack of clarity in mining rules and the overarching ban from the Supreme Court have resulted in proliferation of sand mafia, says a senior mining official in the Haryana government. "We have not awarded a single contract post 2009, due to the Supreme Court ban. There is no clarity in the ruling. We have requested the court for more clarity, but the matter has been pending for a long time. The only solution is to allow more mining in a controlled manner to match supplies," the officer said.
FACT FILE
* 150 builders, including DLF, Ansals, BPTP and Parsavnath, operate in NCR
* The region has a total area of 46,000 sq km and 68 million sq feet of commercial office space, besides 4,00,000 units of residential properties and 103 malls
* The real estate sector is expected to contribute 6.3% to the country’s GDP in 2013, generate revenues of Rs 3,74,000 crore and employ about 7.6 million
* 500-600 tonnes of fine sand is legally mined in Haryana, while 153 acres of land is excavated daily in Gautam Buddh Nagar. Delhi does not permit this. Stones are crushed to get coarse sand in Alwar and Bharatpur
* Activists allege illegal mining takes place at Okhla barrage, upstream Wazirabad and villages across Gautam Buddh Nagar and in a few pockets in Haryana
* Haryana claims there is no organised mafia in the state, but acknowledges theft of sand. Uttar Pradesh admits to it
