Tolivelugu Crime Bureau, Hyderabad: Mulugu district which was believed to be a backward region has now become a cash cow for all the people who are doing sand business. Like we shared some interesting insights about the ongoing illegal means of sand loot in the earlier stories, in this coverage- part 3, we will be shedding light on some more issues which were never revealed before. Looking into the situation there, every day, at any point in time, at least 20 quarries were happening on the premises, making it difficult for the authorities to keep an eye on. Many of the irregularities go unchecked. While there are 20 permits in the name of tribal co-operative societies, 7 areas are being exploited with no legal documentation. So far, millions of cubic tonnes of sand business have gone unaccounted for.
Hakeem Quarry:
This name is famous in Etoor Nagaram. With the help of fake documents, they are creating havoc in the middle of the river on 40 acres of land. It was so bold that they built a seven-kilometer-long road on the river Godavari itself and dug up tonnes of sand, moving it using 5 JCBs every day. Soya Bhupathi Rao, who belongs to the landlord family of Venkatapuram owned 150 acres of land. The Godavari was subjected to erosion from 1952 to 1980, looking at which he gave away the land to the farmers for free for cultivation. All those who took the land for agriculture are now creating fake documents showing them as the real ones to proclaim their ownership over the lands. These are the people who are committing the hefty sand lifting work from their so-called lands. Records are being tampered with and millions of cubic tonnes of sand are being extracted throughout a depth of 5 to 10 meters in the Godavari River by managing the mining PO. With these activities, Godavari is now full of pits.
Now they are looking forward to repeating the same task in the neighboring lands. Lakshman Rao Babu is the head of Hakeem Quarry. Minister Dayakar Rao is helping them continue this business. However, these lands were recently seized by Forest officials who recognized them as a sensitive area. Despite the closure of 6 quarries, they have been sweeping off the sand at the Hakeem Quarry all night without any court orders. Every day, around 200 to 300 lorries of sand go out of this single quarry. Legally, it is legal to have a JCB on leased land. But here in the name of registered lands, they are committing irregularities by taking sand from the middle of the Godavari itself and are pouring it onto the ground which is utterly illegal. Bommanapalli Society Quarry is run by MPTC Praveen Reddy and his gang of goons. They managed to influence the people of the neighboring villages, and are taking away the sand from the river using the gigantic automobiles instead of it being done by people.
Ayyavari Peta, Kamalapuram, Ankennagoodem 1, 2 Edira, Ippugoodem, Dharmaram, Rajupeta, Sunchupalli, Ware Goodem, Suraveedu, Kondapuram, Ramanjapuram, Palam, Venkatapuram, Mutharam are the places where these businesses are aggressively conducted by the influential people. However, in Kannayagudem, there is a break now due to the orders from the Environment Department. So far, the fake documents of 40 acres were created and they were renamed, the work has begun at these places even without Geo co-ordinations.
The mafia themselves are taking the sand out by giving lakhs of rupees to the original landowners if necessary. Mulugu district Jampannavagu has been accused of being a place where fake documents were made. The survey numbers shown in the records are shown as government lands in the Dharani portal. Tribal leaders complained to the Collector- sand permits were obtained for 18 acres in Wajedu Zone Dharmaram and only 3.9 acres were genuine deeds and records were tampered with for the remaining land. It was alleged that the assigned land previously distributed to the poor in Rajupeta village in the Mangapeta zone was deeded to others and sand permits were taken in their name.
GST blow to the societies
The money doesn’t belong to them, they are barely making thousands, but getting notices to pay GST in crores. The Etoor Society has officially extracted sand worth Rs 27 crore at a rate of Rs 650 per tonne. For that, 9 percent GST has to be paid to the state and 9 percent to the country. Most of the people who do business there are the benamis of TRS leaders who prefer to be anonymous in all their illegal business activities. They are openly exploiting the innocence of the tribal population who originally are unaware of the wrongdoings. Though the GST notices are coming at the end of the year. Contractors are acting as if nothing they have nothing to with it. With this, Etoor Society has to pay 3 crores 60 lakh GST, and there is a threat of the bank accounts of the tribals getting seized. With only Rs 40 per tonne coming from the whole business, it is quite brutal seeing the state of the locals. It is now an open secret that the TRS leaders are behind all these irregularities.
These are the facts:
It would be really wonderful if the lands that were submerged in the rivers could really be cleared of sand dunes and re-cultivated. But no such thing is seen here. Every farmer has the power to clear the pastures on his land and sell the sand or soil. Just paying synergy to the government is enough. The High Court has also made this clear several times through similar judgments. When the TRS government came, the government entered the field. Thinking from a commercial perspective it has also converted registered lands into a source of government revenue.
The Telangana Mineral Development Corporation has been entrusted with the task of clearing the sand dunes as it is not up to the farmers. The Union Environment Ministry has made it clear that environmental clearances are not required to clear sand dunes on registered lands. With this, the TRS government started forcing the district collectors, who are also chairpersons of sand committees, to issue permits for sand mining on the registered lands as the government will be able to make more money in less time.
Inappropriate usage of GO Number 3
After the formation of the state of Telangana, the state government announced a new sand policy. To this end, the Department of Industries, Commerce, and Mines has issued GO No. 3. The removal of sand dunes on registered lands is also included in this GO. Zonal Agriculture Officer certification as per GO 3 regarding sand mining permits on registered lands will be crucial. The officer will have to ensure that the sand dunes can be re-cultivated on the cleared land. If there are three meters of sand dunes, one meter of sand can be extracted, and the groundwater department official recommends so. The agricultural officer must certify that the remaining two meters can be farmed in the sand. If this is possible or not? this is a common doubt. In addition to this, with the floods every year, sand dunes are being laid again. In Mulugu and Bhadradri Kothagudem districts, not a single farmer has so far rejected the file. Neither the expected goal was achieved. Nearly a thousand acres of sand dunes were cleared during the last seven years time period within the two districts, and not a single acre was cultivated by the farmers. The naked truth is that even if the sand dunes are removed, these lands are not good enough to be used for agriculture. In such a case, the main objective of GO 3, to make farmers re-cultivate their land is not at all fulfilled in the first place, and the only benefit with this GO is that the government is simply making more money out of it.
Mafia runs everything here!
Until now, there are no records of farmers roaming for permits on their registered lands. Sand Mafia is openly leading the business affairs. In Mulugu, Bhadradri, and Kottagudem districts, the sand mafia is spinning the wheel of dominance in any zone seen along the Godavari coast. Inquiries are being made about the flooded lands and the concerned farmers are being persuaded to work together for sand clearances. It has become routine to meet tehsildars, submit applications in the name of farmers, pay huge bribes and conduct surveys. Authorities have also received complaints that sand permits have been taken in some cases by creating fake records.
It has been alleged that the huge profits were made by the mafia by excavating sand on assigned lands which were pursued using the fake records in Manuguru, Pinapaka, Charla, and Bourgampadu mandals of Kothagudem district. The sand mafia, which had obtained permission to excavate sand on Dalit lands on the Kinnerasani river in the Bourgampadu zone, has collected crores of rupees by charging three times the price fixed by the government. What Dalits are being paid here is quite nominal.
The registered landowners left with nothing
In the matter of these registered lands, there is no end to the reckless nature of the agents. Farmers are making deals on hundred rupee stamps in advance and are signing on the blank bank cheques. Brokers are making millions of rupees in profits by paying farmers just four and a half thousand rupees per acre. When asked about the injustice and exploitation, farmers are being deceived into believing that the agents had no profits left as they already spent millions of rupees bribing the officials and that the damage has been done. Irrespective of the farmers’ land, the excavation is done everywhere and not just in the permitted area. Overloading trucks and doing zero business has become a common thing. The Telangana Mineral Development Corporation will have to enter into agreements with the farmers in order to clear the irregularities.
There is a provision that third-party agreements are invalid. All of these are limited to papers. It is a shocking thing that the TSMDC officials are handing over all the sand ramps to third parties. The state Mineral Development Corporation (SMDC) is making crores of rupees by selling sand extracted from farmers’ lands to consumers for Rs 600 per cubic meter, under the label of covering it up online. The farmer gets paid just Rs 100. Overall, they do not get even ten rupees out of this amount. On top of it, the contractors contracting work from farmers do not even pay the 18 percent GST due under the regulations.
Pressure on collectors:
Sand permits on registered lands are to be given by the District Sand Committees constituted under the chairmanship of the District Collectors. Criticisms abound that the collectors, despite knowing that many irregularities are taking place in the matter of registered lands, are giving permits as per the recommendations of the lower-level authorities without thorough scrutiny. Many people make the mistake of giving permits even after knowing that they will not come into cultivation after taking sand from the registered lands. It is also noteworthy that once permits are issued they do not care who is running them and are not scrutinized at the field level. A few days before the retirement of a retired collector in Bhadradri Kottagudem, the government received complaints about sand files allowing heavy sand extraction activities.
