Loot in Gandhi's land - India today

Loot in Gandhi's land
Uday Mahurkar
January 24, 2008

Porbandar has always shared very little with the ideology of its most illustrious son. The gun, and not Mahatma Gandhi’s message of non-violence, has been dominant in this coastal district which boasts of the largest limestone deposits in the country.
A massive investigation by the Porbandar district administration and the State Mines and Mineral Department over the past year and a half has revealed that powerful local politicians, goons and petty operators have illegally mined 1.50 crore tonne of limestone worth Rs 500 crore over the past decade in the district.
The investigations are going on and the final figure could be higher still.
The main operators in the racket are all big-time politicians—former BJP minister Babu Bokhiria, a local gangster Bhima Dula (he is also the brother of BJP MLA Karsan Dula), his son Laxman Bhima and former Congress MP Bharat Odedra.
The three— Bokhiria, Bhima Dula and Odedra— are closely related to each other. While Bokhiria was arrested on the eve of the recent Gujarat polls and is still in jail, Odedra is out on bail and has been barred by the court from entering the district.
Dula is already in jail on an earlier charge of murder. Apart from the trio, there are several small operators in this racket who are brazenly looting limestone from the mines with impunity.
The whole operation came to light in 2006, when the district collector H.N. Chibber and police chief raided a big mine near Porbandar and caught several labourers illicitly excavating limestone.
On interrogation it was found that they were working for the trio Bokhiria, Bhima Dula and Odedra. As per the records the mine belongs to Saurashtra Chemicals, now owned by the Nirma Group, but has never been excavated by the company. The police has charged the trio with theft of limestone worth Rs 56 crore.
Says Arjun Modhwadia, leader of opposition in the state Assembly and Congress MLA from Porbandar, who won the recent poll defeating Odedra’s wife and BJP nominee Shantaben, “Bokhiria and Bhima Dula are the backbone of this racket.
They have flourished only due to the patronage they have got from Gandhinagar.” Says Devsinh Modhwadia, a local Congress worker and student leader, “Illicit mining is the source of all unlawful activity in Gandhiji’s birth place.
If this can be brought under control, it should have an overall positive impact on Porbandar’s environment.” Both Bokhiria’s wife Shantaben and Odedra have refused to comment on the issue.
Says Bharat Lakhani, Bokhiria’s lawyer in his defence, “Bokhiria has many legal limestone mines in Porbander out of which he is earning more than enough. Where is the need for him to do illegal mining? In fact, he has become a victim of the machinations of a few people who want to settle political scores with him."
There are 251 official limestone mines in the district out of which 129 produce high-grade limestone while the remaining 122 produce the lowgrade variety.
High-grade limestone is the key raw material in the manufacture of a soap ingredient, soda ash and cement. Low-grade limestone, on the other hand, is used to make stone slabs for homes. A survey by the mineral department found instances of illegal mining by 45 licence holders in the case of high-grade and 18 in the case of low-grade limestone.
There are three different ways of mining illicitly. The kind being done by Bokhiria and the gang, where one mines someone else’s property, is rare.
A vast majority of the cases are of official licence holders not excavating limestone from their mines but from neighbouring land which either belongs to the government or is officially cattle-grazing land for villagers.
The third kind of cases are ones in which illicit miners take power-of-attorney from official licence holders to operate their mines and then excavate limestone from neighbouring government or cattle-grazing land.
In one case, where Bhima Dula is a lone accused, the police found an unexcavated mine in the name of his late father with limestone stocks worth Rs 77 lakh—a clear indication that the mineral had been mined elsewhere and stocked at the mine.
Bokhiria was arrested only after a PIL was filed by Porbandar-based lawyer Bhagubhai Devani in the high court seeking his arrest on the grounds that while several others were arrested in connection with the case, this man was “roaming scot-free” because of alleged political pressure from Gandhinagar.
He was reportedly in the UK when a court order, warning attachment of property, forced him to rush to India and court arrest.
The police has registered 12 FIRs in major cases while in other minor cases, the Mines and Minerals Department has issued notices to people with FIRs to be filed later.
Rampant illegal mining has also had an impact on the environment. Cattle-grazing land near the Barda hills on the periphery of the district, from where Barda wildlife sanctuary begins, has been ravaged. Illegal mining has also been taking place in the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) in Kuchdi village.
A chunk of government land in the village, measuring three sq km, was looted of lowgrade limestone worth Rs 119 crore.
In the early ’80s, gang wars between the people of Kharva and Mer (two local and dominant OBC castes) over government limestone mining contracts were commonplace and had led to several murders. BJP, when it came to power in the state in 1995, brought a semblance of order by cracking down on the gangs. The clashes ceased but the murders continue.
Over the past decade and a half, nearly half-a-dozen killings have taken place in Porbandar over illicit limestone mining, the last being that of a limestone supplier Mulu Modhwadia, a supporter of Arjun Modhwadia, who was allegedly murdered last year by the henchmen of Bhima Dula for challenging his illegal activities.
Bhima Dula was later jailed on the charge of murder in the case.
The Narendra Modi Government denies it tried to shelter anybody involved in illicit mining. Says a Government spokesman, “Though this mining racket has been going on for years, it is our Government that has unearthed it. For this, it should be patted, not rebuked.” Clearly, it will be some time before the controversy comes to an end.
Mine of woes
1.5 crore tonne of limestone worth Rs 500 crore has been illegally mined over a decade from Porbandar district.
Official mining licence holders have been excavating limestone from government or cattle-grazing land near their mines.
There are 251 official limestone mines in Porbandar and 63 licence holders have been found guilty of illegal mining.
12 FIRs have been filed by the Porbandar police with prominent local politicians also charged. Notices have been issued in other cases.

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Devshi Modhwadia
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