Sand slips

Photo: Sayantoni Palchoudhuri

IN his 11-year career as a civil servant, Girish Sharma has been transferred 11 times. The joint district collector of Sehore in Madhya Pradesh is not incompetent. But his work hurts the state’s political set-up. He would have been sent to another district on January 9 had he not moved court.

The government was irked with Sharma’s investigation into sand mining in Sehore, also the home district of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The government was perhaps certain that no district collector would implement its directive against illegal mining issued a month ago. But Sharma did and prepared a report on illegal mining activities in the district.

To improve its image, the government had launched a month-long campaign against illegal sand mining between December 15, 2011, and January 15, 2012. All district collectors were asked to form teams of officials from mining, revenue, forest and police departments, which would take steps to stop illegal mining. In most districts, these officials seized vehicles and registered cases just for records. But in Sehore, the district collectorate decided to take the order at its face value.

Sharma sent a team of officers to a sand mine leased out to Madhya Pradesh State Mineral Corporation (MPSMC), a state-owned agency, in Ambajadeed village on the banks of the Narmada. The team, led by Nasrullaganj sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Manoj Saryam, went unannounced and found illegal sand excavation on 51.3 hectare (ha) by Shiva Corporation Limited (SCL), a Rajasthan-based mining company, a contractor of MPSMC. It had illegally extracted 1.9 million cubic metre of sand with a whopping market value of Rs 378.7 crore. During two more operations, the team found that SCL had far exceeded its allotted 4 ha mining area each in Badgaon and Saatdev villages. It was illegally mining in 38 ha in Badgaon and 5 ha in Saatdev. Together, it accounted for sand worth Rs 112 crore. Saryam issued a show cause notice to the company through MPSMC.

The team also found that mining lease areas in the district were not demarcated on the ground before being assigned to the contractors. This resulted in actual mining areas far exceeding their allotted area. Lease for minor minerals were sanctioned without newspaper advertisements. This included all eight sand mines subleased to SCL by MPSMC. The government did not assess the illegally mined sand, causing great loss to the exchequer in terms of royalty, sales tax and income tax.

Sharma’s report, presented to the state government on January 9, also pointed out irregularities in stone mining by crusher operators. He recommended immediate cancellation of licences of SCL. Even before the report was submitted, news of illegalities in Sehore had become public, causing uproar in the Legislative Assembly. The leader of the opposition, Ajay Singh, set up a committee to probe the illegalities. Its report, released on January 16, found that SCL had illegally mined 661 ha against the allotted lease of 16 ha in Sehore’s Nasrullaganj sub-division.

Soon after Sharma submitted his report, the government transferred him. He moved the Jabalpur High Court seeking a stay. The court cancelled Sharma’s transfer orders, but the government took away the charge of mining from him. On March 1, the government renewed MPSMC’s lease for Ambajadeed village.

In fact, SCL enjoys a monopolistic share of MPSMC’s mines. About 60 per cent of the total mines in Madhya Pradesh have been allocated to the corporation. MPSMC says it has 464 mines. Of this, SCL has sublease in more than 250. “It is difficult to believe that one company got contracts of more than half of MPSMC’s mines. It smacks of favouritism. The probe team found illegal mining in just three mines. The sand extracted was worth Rs 490 crore. One wonders how much wealth the company has looted in the state,” says Ajay Dubey of Prayatna, a non-profit based in Bhopal.

The company’s near monopoly on sand mining has affected the market, says Soumitra Roy of Vikas Samvad, a non-profit. “Bhopal-Indore corridor is a construction hub. SCL has formed syndicates with builders and transporters in this corridor. They decide the price of sand in the state,” he says. In the last two years, the price of sand has increased from Rs 2,400 per truck to Rs 7,000 per truck, a Bhopal-based builder says.

“Nobody knows about SCL’s stakeholders. It was involved in illegal mining in the chief minister’s constituency without any fear. This shows that powerful people at the top have interest in this business,” says Singh, the leader of the opposition. On some occasions, the government has openly defended the company’s interest.

In January, the SDM of Budhni in Sehore seized 150 truckloads of illegally stored sand near SCL’s mines. The district collector advertised for its auction. On January 23, S K Mishra, managing director of MPSMC, wrote to the Sehore collector to cancel the auction and release the sand to the corporation. Mishra is also secretary to the state mineral resources department and secretary to the chief minister. His position suits MPSMC and, in turn, its contractors.

In January this year, the collector of Chhatarpur advertised for auction of 158 leases of minor minerals. Chhatarpur is on the Uttar Pradesh border and has 103 sand mines. This sand goes to Uttar Pradesh and fetches a good price. On February 15, MPSMC wrote to the mining department requesting it to ask the Chhatarpur collector to cancel the auction and transfer the sand mines to the corporation. Despite protests from contractors and panchayat bodies, the department transferred the mines to the corporation the next day.