VIJAYAWADA: Back in November, a man called Janibasha of Kishtapuram in Nalgonda district bid Rs. 15.15 crore to mine sand from the Shanagapadu reach in Penugrachiprolu mandal in Krishna district. Even for the Krishna riverine sand, prized by realtors in Hyderabad, this was an astronomical amount. But the real story is that Janishasha is a white ration card holder.Inside of two days, the man defaulted on the payment and that was the last that was heard of him. It takes the district administration months to do the paperwork to organise another auction of sand reaches. Which is exactly what the sand mafia wants. In the inter-auction period, their JCBs mine the reaches of the Krishna in the dead of night and a whole battalion of trucks, some 500 of them, carry away the sand. Every day. Much of it is supplied to building contractors in Hyderabad.The overbidding is par for the course. In the last auction, one Nageshswara Rao of Chityala village in Vatsavai mandal quoted Rs. 45.45 crore for the Ganiatkur sand quarry in Kanchikacharla mandal in Krishna district. He defaulted. Who wants to bid when it can be had free?The sand mined illegally from the banks of the Krishna and its rivulets makes about Rs. 2 crore for the mafia in this district. Every day. While there are 72 sand reaches in the catchment areas of the Krishna, Budameru and Munneru, only two quarries are authorised by government. The rest are in the hands of the sand mafia. According to sources, many people’s reps, across all political parties, are involved in illegal sand mining. They also allegedly receive full cooperation from officials.“It is a known fact that the main income for politicians in Krishna district comes from illegal sand quarrying, liquor and real estate,” said a senior officer in the revenue department on condition of anonymity. Though the Vigilance & Enforcement (V&E) wing conducts checks occasionally and seizes vehicles, nothing concrete is ever done to nip the nexus of politicians and officials. For the record, Tuesday’s V&E netted 13 sand tractors. “Raiding and seizure of tractors is not a big thing,” said a local politician of Chandarlapadu mandal.
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