The Enforcement Directorate today arrested Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s nephew Bhupinder Singh alias Honey in a 2018 illegal sand mining case. A lot of politics is being carried out in the name of sand in Punjab recently, which goes to assembly elections soon.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has alleged that the sand mafia in Punjab was running an illegal sand and gravel mining business worth over 20,000 crore with the support of the ruling Congress. “Can the welfare of the people of Punjab be expected from patrons of the mafia? Earlier, the Badals and BJP looted Punjab by patronising all sorts of mafia. In 2017, people expressed their faith in the promises made by the Congress and Captain Amarinder Singh but they too followed in the footsteps of the Badals,” delhi CM and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal recently said.
However, Channi has accused the BJP-led central government of hatching a “conspiracy” to “trap” him in the sand mining case ahead of Punjab elections 2022. The CM had also hit out at the BJP for trying to exact “revenge” over the return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi without attending a scheduled event and addressing a rally during his visit to Ferozepur earlier in January.
But what is the issue of sand mining in Punjab, and when did it get a political angle?
There is an estimated demand of 2 crore tonnes of sand in Punjab every year, and end consumers pay exorbitant prices for a tractor-trolley as a result of an alleged mafia controlling the illegal business to pocket crores, according to reports. Prior to 2005, sand was a very cheap commodity. However, with the real estate boom and several road projects coming to the state, the demand for sand increased dramatically, attracting the attention of both politicians and the mafia, the Indian Express reports.
The mines were auctioned off for the first time in 2007 by the then-SAD-BJP government. Since then, sand has been a source of contention for every government in the state.
Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has already tried to wrest control of the issue from the opposition parties by lowering sand prices from Rs 9 per cubic foot to Rs 5.5 at the pithead. However, state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu claims that it is still being sold at prices higher than those announced by the government.
While the issue is one of the biggest in poll-bound Punjab, the ground reality may represent a bleak, ignored, picture. According to local activists, the sand mafia frequently colludes with the local administration and the current government. Advocate RS Bains, who is fighting illegal sand mining cases in the Punjab and Haryana High Court told the Print that the state’s highest authorities are involved. “The sand mafia owns the state cabinet. The state cabinet then makes rules so vague they can be easily bent for illegal activities to be carried out,” Bains said in the report.
With inputs from News18
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