Ambulances, cars, autorickshaws used for carrying tons of sand in Bihar: CAG report

PATNA: Forget trucks and tractor trolleys. In Bihar, tons of sand is transported even by ambulances, cars, autorickshaws and motorbikes! The startling revelation has come to light in the audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India which was tabled on the floor of the State Legislature on Friday.
According to the CAG report, in 14 districts of Bihar, as many as 2,43,811 e-challans were generated using 46,935 unrealistic vehicles having registration number of ambulance, bus, autorickshaws, car and motorcycle shown to be used for transporting minerals ranging from 8 metric ton to 10.89 lakh metric tons.
"In 15,723 cases in 11 district mining offices (DMOs), 11 to 861 e-challans were generated for one vehicle in one day to carry sand. In four districts, the lessees concerned dispatched stones during 2018 to 2020 and e-challans were generated more than 10 times to 142 times in a day for a particular period," the CAG report revealed adding 21,192 fake e-challans were used in different construction works in 16 work divisions.
The performance audit report of the CAG has also detected extensive illegal mining outside the sand ghats and large-scale irregularities in the allotment of sand ghats for mining by the mines and geology department. The report also found mining activities being carried out outside the allotted areas in three districts. "As per available satellite images of sand ghats of Sone river, outside extractions were seen in 20 out of 24 sand ghats in Patna, 28 out of 36 sand ghats in Bhojpur and 16 out of 26 sand ghats in Rohtas districts," the CAG report said. Apart from these, sand mining activities were noticed outside the approved lease areas in 17 sand ghats of Chandan river in Banka district. The report stated that most of the illegal mining was being carried out outside the approved areas.
The CAG report added that owing to systematic loopholes in approval of coordinates without proper demarcations, the illegal mining remained a rampant feature throughout the test-checked districts as most of the control mechanisms required to be employed by the department as per the Sustainable Sand Mining Management Guideline to check illegal mining, were found non-existent. Analysis of available satellite images on Google Earth Pro in Sone sand ghats in three districts also revealed that the mining activities were carried out in several ghats without obtaining environmental clearance.
The CAG report further stumbled upon cases of irregularities in allotments for sand mining. In Paruhar sand ghat of Rohtas district, the mining areas for sand extraction was given in the middle of a high intensity electric tower which was strictly prohibited. In Banka, the mining was allowed at habitation while at another place in Bhojpur, it was allowed to be carried out in agricultural/residential land in place of riverbed, says the report.
As per the Bihar Sand Mining Policy, 2013, the sand mining should be carried out leaving five meters of both sides of the river and no mining should be done in 300 meters range of highway and rail bridge. During study of satellite images of Banka district, however, it was found that the allotted areas of Bishunpur sand ghat was barely 113 meters from Dhanka Mor Banka highway bridge, while another allotted area was only 117 meters from Banka rail bridge.
Similarly, an area of eight sand ghats in Banka district was allotted in the middle of Chandan river which was in total violation of the state mining policy.