The sand mafia ruling the banks of Yamuna and Hindon rivers is not to be trifled with. Even in full media glare, after the furore over suspension of an SDM, the line of trucks and trolleys driving out with sand and stones has not shortened.
The law is still broken daily in Gautam Budh Nagar, under the nose of the police and administration, despite the matter having reached the national stage and the locals being up in arms.
Illegal mining is common on the stretch from the Okhla barrage in Noida to Gharbhara village in Greater Noida. Twenty villages in a 25 square km area are centre of racket. But before Durga Shakti Nagpal, nobody had dared to even look at those trucks. The sand mafia enjoys the patronage of local leaders and the ruling party and it doesn’t play by the rules.
The most affected villages are Jaganpur Afzalpur, Jaganpur Daob, Dankaur, Atta Gujaran, Gunpura, Faleda, Tekpur, Shergarh, Mehandi, Gharbara, Raipur, Bhakhtawarpur, Mohiyapur,
Yakubpur, Asgarpur, Gulawali, Jhatta Badauli, Akudpur, Mangrauli, Sharpur, Sultanpur and Kondli Bangar.Sources say sand worth Rs 700 crore is being extracted illegally every year from this region and the mafia is expanding it sway gradually up to Jewar.
The riverbed has been devastated and villagers’ land seized. locals stand by, helpless, without getting even a pittance while the brazen mafia rakes in the moolah. There is no deterring the armed goons who saunter across the length and breadth of Greater Noida and Noida with a swagger, as if they own this part of the country.
District police officials just pass the buck on to the mining department, citing jurisdiction, the easiest excuse. “The mining department has inadequate manpower and we provide them assistance when they require. But it is their responsibility to stop land grabbing,” said a police official.
What they fail to explain is the unabated plying of hundreds of trucks loaded with illegally excavated sand. It is here that the local and traffic police look guilty as they simply allow truck movement for a ‘consideration’.
Villagers blame police connivance and inaction on the surge in mining over the past decade. The police, on the other hand, point to over 100 cases registered this year — all by former SDM Durga Shakti Nagpal.
The police official admitted, “Though we have been coming down heavily on those involved in illegal mining, it requires more attention at the top level as it has affected over two dozen villages along the river.”They also claim to have registered 102 cases of illegal sand mining, made 130 arrests and impounded 125 vehicles (mostly excavators) this year alone.
Villagers dismiss this as eye wash. “They extracted large quantities of sand from Yamuna before the rainy season and dumped it on the bank. Now, they are grabbing sand from public land illegally. They are extracting up to 350 truckloads from Noida and Greater Noida every day. They have stored sand worth more than Rs 100 crore at various places in the region,” claimed a villager, on conditions of anonymity.
Any opposition stops in its tracks rather abruptly. The recent murder of crusader Paleram Chauhan, a resident of Raipur village of Sector 126, is a case in point. Referring to his father’s documents against brazen mining around his village, son Aakash said Chauhan had even approached the Allahabad High Court, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and local administration but to no avail. “The sand mafia was behind my father and murdered him. The police could do nothing. They haven’t even spared an honest IAS officer, Durga Shakti Nagpal, and played a major role in her suspension,” said Aakash.
As Delhi-NCR spread rapidly, local politicians, small-time builders and some independent players have jumped into the realty game. They have created an organised nexus with the help of locals and supply materials at low costs. They spend around Rs 4,000 to 5,000 per dumper and sell at triple the amount. In defence, they argue that the Government does not provide licence for legal mining.
Manoj Kumar, an RTI activist, also points to the nexus between politicians, bureaucrats and local musclemen. Their nefarious trade at several levels is not only causing a huge loss to the Government exchequer, it also degrading the rivers.
“The entire nexus is spread and there are many players who control it. There are small-time players too who provide tractors, trucks and dumpers to excavators. There are also some individuals who form a group of labourers and others who carry on extraction,” explained the activist.
“Mining along the Yamuna and Hindon is posing a serious threat to the environment, as it affects biodiversity. Deep digging results in rock and soil erosion and fauna gets affected. Sand is considered the main source of ground water filtering in and looting it beyond a limit will crucially affect filtration. It also disturbs geology of the region and destabilises the river ecosystem,” said Akash Vashistha, an environmental activist based in Ghaziabad, who has filed several complaints against illegal mining.
According to him, around 75 per cent land in Ghaziabad and 80 per cent in Gautambudh Nagar has been encroached. “Massive digging of natural resources like sand is just an example,” Vashistha added.
EOM