Brakes on illegal mining send sand prices soaring

Arun Sharma

Tribune News Service

Ropar, March 27

Following a crackdown on the mining mafia by the Congress government, the state is witnessing a steep hike in the prices of sand and gravel.

Enquiries reveal that due to acute scarcity of these mining minerals, the retail price of sand has shot up from Rs 16 per cubic ft to Rs 26 per cubic ft and that of gravel has gone up from Rs 20 per cubic ft a couple of days ago to Rs 26 per cubic ft.

Officials at Nakkian toll plaza near Kiratpur Sahib said nearly 200 tippers overloaded with sand and gravel used to pass from there every day. But after the district police started issuing challans, the number has decreased substantially in the past few days. Yesterday, only 26 tippers crossed the toll.

Similarly at Solakhian toll plaza on the Ropar-Kharar road, officials said the number of loaded tippers was between 400 and 450 against nearly 1,000 a few days ago. Tippers coming from Hoshiarpur, Pathankot, Nalagarh, Una, Nangal and Anandpur Sahib, Kiratpur Sahib and Ropar pass through this route.

A sand and gravel dealer in Chandigarh said a tipper with 800 cubic ft sand was available for Rs 8,000 in the wholesale market till last week. The price has jumped to Rs 16,000 and still two tippers could reach him at this price, he said.

Yogesh Gulati, another dealer of building material, said following strictness by the police and other enforcement agencies, sand from the Sutlej riverbed, considered to be of best quality, was not available in the market.

Last week, Ropar Deputy Commissioner Gurneet Tej had formed 23 teams of officials from different departments to check illegal mining and ordered a fresh demarcation of quarries allotted for mining of sand and gravel in the district. Following this, the lifting of material from allotted quarries was suspended.

A strict checking by the police has led to impounding of 57 vehicles illegally loaded with sand and gravel. Ropar SSP Nilambari Vijay Jagdale said in the last week, seven FIRs had been registered against people involved in illegal mining.

During a meeting with the Deputy Commissioner, the stone crusher owners confessed that they were forced to pay Rs 3,000 for 1,000 cubic ft material as “gunda tax”. They said nakas put up to collect the illegal tax had vanished.