A week after Tamil Nadu government’s sand mining business came to a grinding halt following the searches conducted by the Enforcement Directorate last Tuesday to investigate allegations of money laundering, the Water Resources Department has started accepting online bookings for the sale of sand.
According to A. Muthiah, Engineer-in-Chief and Chief Engineer General, Water Resources Department, the process of online bookings had started, and the sale of sand would commence in a day or two. Transactions would be through online mode and lorry operators without access to the internet or digital banking could seek assistance from e-seva centres to make the bookings.
He said sand mining and sales had been stopped since ED officials had taken away CCTV recording devices and hard discs of computers from the stockyards. “Since it is essential to have CCTV and the computerised system functioning, we had to put the sand sale on hold,” he said.
Asked whether sand was sold on payment of cash before ED conducted searches, Mr. Muthiah said the transactions were always via digital mode and cash was never accepted. The ED officials had requested for some details relating to sand mining and sales, and he had instructed the officials concerned to share the same as it was all an open record.
Aware of fake bills
The Engineer-in-Chief said he had called for a detailed report from the Chief Engineers on the alleged irregularities in the sale of sand. Asked about the statement of the ED about fake bills and counterfeit QR codes, Mr. Muthiah said such issues were already brought to his knowledge.
“There were some complaints of fake bills and bogus QR codes, which were promptly referred to the Executive Engineers for appropriate action. But they could not reach out to the lorry operators who flagged the issues. I am not aware of any complaints of CCTV footage or data on computers being erased,” he said.
Bar counter sales
Tamil Nadu Sand Lorry Owners Federation president Sella Rajamani said the sale of sand should strictly be through online mode. Opening counters at the stock yards for accepting cash payments would only lead to irregularities like illegal sales, fake bills, etc.
“The government laid down guidelines that sand can be purchased through online mode and also by making payments at bank counters established at the stockyards. To our knowledge, no such bank counter was opened anywhere…this paved the way for irregularities. Some private persons who excavated sand and transported it to the yards connived with officials and operated the sales counters by taking cash,” he said.
Mr. Rajamani claimed the association had flagged the issue to the PWD authorities on a few occasions, but no action was taken. Instead of opening counters for cash payments at the yard, the officials could accept Demand Drafts as was done in the previous government.
