The Mamata Banerjee government's step of introducing the e-auctioning of sand pits to curb illegal lifting of sand from the riverbeds resulted in huge revenue generation in the districts.
Implementation of e-auctioning, besides carrying out regular raids to check illegal excavation of sand from riverbeds, especially in places like Arambagh in Hooghly, has changed the entire scenario.
Excavation of sand takes place mainly in six South Bengal districts namely Hooghly, Birbhum, Bankura, Burdwan, West Midnapore and Purulia.
But illegal lifting of sand from riverbeds had been a constant problem for the district authorities. Thus, stringent steps were taken to check the menace.
The Arambagh sub-division authorities have set up teams to conduct regular raids at the dead of the night when illegal excavation of sand mainly takes place. The teams were comprised of block level administrative officers and policemen from local police stations. The stringent steps gave relief to the people from illegal lifting of sand which had also been leaving an adverse affect on the environment. The officers from the sub-division had seized several trucks and earth movers during the raids. Parallel steps for e-auctioning of sand blocks were also taken that led to generation of around Rs 87 crore in Hooghly district itself and interestingly, 90 per cent of the revenue is from Arambagh sub-division. In Hooghly district, only two sand blocks outside Arambagh sub-division were being auctioned.
Before the system of e-auctioning of sand blocks was in place, businessmen had to fill up an application form and to submit it to the Block Land and Land Reforms Officer. Based on the application and Rs 500, a businessman used to get permission to excavate sand from a particular location and had to pay a loyalty of only around Rs 50 for lifting 300 CFT sand. It was neither helpful to the environment nor was it generating revenue for the state's exchequer. Reports of river banks getting eroded due to illegal lifting of sand from river bed were rampant then.
Now, the system has completely changed with e-auctioning in place as a businessman has to win a bid to excavate sand from a particular location. It is learnt that that a businessman has won a bid to excavate sand from around 12 acre of the riverbed at Goghat in Arambagh sub-division at Rs 2.30 crore. After winning the bid through e-auctioning, a businessman also has to give the loyalty as per the old rate. In Hooghly district, excavation of sand takes place in Darakeswar, Damodar and Mundeswari rivers.
With businessmen investing such a huge amount to win, the bid will also not allow illegal lifting of sand. It may be mentioned that 171 sand blocks have been e-auctioned in Burdwan district and it has also been successful in other districts including West Midnapore, Birbhum, Bankura and Purulia. It may be recalled that after coming to power in 2011, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had over and again urged the administration in different districts to take strict action against sand mafias According to senior district officials, the Chief Minister's policy has reduced illegal lifting of sand to a great extent.