Burning Issue: Sand Scarcity In Andhra Pradesh

Sand has become a scarce product in Andhra Pradesh. Tractors getting loaded in the sand reaches are not reaching the consumers, said Vinukonda MLA Brahma Naidu. Similarly, there are allegations that lorries loaded with sand and starting off from Amaravati are also going untraceable.

With many ruling party MLAs coming out into the open and expressing their dissent over the supply of sand and functioning of the field-level officials, the issue seems to have gone out of control of the administration and is likely to turn into a political storm.

Where Is All The Sand Going?

It may be recalled that the previous TD government was defeated mainly due to the irregularities in the management of sand. There were allegations that both the ruling TD and YSRC MLAs, who were in the opposition then, headed the sand mafia. The TD bore the brunt of the allegations with regard to irregularities in the supply of sand. It is said that elected representatives of both the TD and the YSRC in the Godavari and Krishna catchment areas headed the sand mafia.

Following these allegations, the TD regime introduced free sand policy. However, people, in reality, had to buy sand as they had to pay for the excavation of sand and also its transportation to their doorsteps. According to the policy, sand was free but the costs involved in the mining and transportation were borne by the consumers which made it costly again. The local MLAs and officials allegedly formed a syndicate and did sand business.

YSRC Sings A New Tune

In such a situation, the YSRC government was voted to power and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy criticised the previous government for running sand mafia. He said they would introduce a new policy on sand to make the transactions more transparent. For nearly six months after being elected, neither did the government mine or sell the sand in the name of introducing the new policy.

All these had a bearing on the construction sector and it was pushed into crisis. Further, the chaos surrounding the CM’s plan to shift the capital to Vizag, the government’s sole focus on welfare schemes neglecting the public works, economic recession, deepened the crisis and construction activity suffered a beating. This had an impact on the economy of the state.

After prolonged discussion with the officials, the YSRC government introduced online booking for sand to bring in transparency into the system. The government said 1 tonne of sand would be sold for Rs 375. However, even this system failed as computer screens started showing sold out within 5 minutes the booking site opened for the consumers. Further, there was one other complaint from the consumers with regard to online sale. They said that they were not able to see the quality of sand that would be supplied to them on the computer screens.

Crisis Deepens

Meanwhile, the outbreak of Covid-19 led to lockdown and again the construction labourers faced a miserable situation without employment. As many as 20 lakh labourers, associated with the construction works, were rendered jobless due to the pandemic-induced shutdown.

Builders and construction workers say that different variety of sand is required at different stages of the building. Foundation and plastering works need different type of sand. Sand used in the foundation works can be coarse while fine sand is preferred for plastering. With such variation in the requirement, online booking could not keep the consumers completely happy. They were worried that they might not get the required type of sand for their works but pay for poor quality of sand.

To overcome this situation, many builders preferred buying sand in black market as they would bale to specify the type of sand they require, even if they paid more than the government rate.

Dilution Of Sand Policy

These drawbacks resulted in dilution of the YSRC’s sand policy. Many eyebrows were raised over the YSRC government’s claims on transparency in sale of sand. People had doubts on many issues. Who is buying all the sand? Is all sand being put for online sale? Is it being diverted to the black market?

While the government claimed that it was putting everything for sale online, there were allegations that the elected officials and local officials, in collusion, were resorting to unofficial mining and sale of sand.

There is buzz that that the unofficial sale of sand is going on in parallel with the official sales and that the price of sand is being increased exorbitantly and sold in places which are away from the coast and catchment areas. The black marketing of sand fetches a good amount to the MLAs as the price of one truck of sand, which is usually sold for Rs 10,000 would shoot up to Rs 30,000 in the black market. In land-locked areas, people would be facing shortage in supply of sand, both quantity and quality wise. This helps the black marketers mint money.

Unhappy Voices

As expected, this is leading to dissent among the ruling party leaders and MLAs. There are many voices raising in the YSRC party and this could be due to fear that the people in their constituencies would not elect them next time, if they are not able to address the people’s grievances. The MLAs and MPs are worried they would be alienated from the electorate if they do not respond to the crisis. In such a situation, they began trying to push the blame on to the officials.

Meanwhile, a few others are sore over not being able to bag the benefits of organising the sand reaches unofficially. This is leading to allegations that the CM is favouring a few and setting aside some MLAs.

Total Effect

In total, Jagan’s plans to bring in a fool-proof system to curtail illegal sale of sand has only compounded the scarcity with the consumers buying it at exorbitant rates, paying both the official rate of sand and also the black market rate and also facing the inconvenience of quality variation while buying it online.

Corruption by the officials, failure of the online booking system and black marketing by elected representatives led to scarcity of sand in Andhra Pradesh.