A truckload of sand now likely to cost Rs 3 lakh in Punjab

Going by the recent controversial auction of sand mines in Punjab, a truckload of sand in the state may cost around Rs 3 lakh. That’s the arithmetic if successful bidders have to break-even to recover the high price they have paid to bag these sand mines.

Consider this: Bidders of the controversial sand mining site in Saidpur pledged a fortune, after which it went down under the hammer for a high price of Rs 26.5 crore.

The mine has a capacity of over 31,000 tonnes and each truckload carries 40 tonnes. Now, the bidder will have to sell each truckload for more than Rs 3 lakh to break-even.

The cost of machinery, manpower etc., are additional. At the 29,000 tonne capacity Mehadipur site in Nawanshehr, which went for Rs 9.2 crore, the bidder will have to sell each truckload for Rs 1.24 lakh if he has to break-even.

Apprehensions are that all this mismatch may lead to over-exploitation and illegal mining. Also, a source said mining business is restricted during the Monsoon.

As eyebrows are being raised over the first sand-mining e-auction in the Capt Amarinder Singh regime, the controversy surrounding the stake of a “cook” and three other employees of senior Punjab minister Rana Gurjit Singh in these mines refuses to die down.

The minister’s former “cook”, who has declared an annual income of Rs 1 lakh to the I-T Department, bid a whopping Rs 26.5 crore to win the Saidpur sand mine.

The chief minister has ordered a judicial probe. The Aam Aadmi Party has termed the probe an eyewash with party MLA Sukhpal Khaira demanding Justice J S Narang (retd), who will probe the case, to recuse himself as his son was counsel to the minister’s nephew.