Stories on Wheels- Banas Bhajri

Highway road from Jaipur till Kota

 On our way to Tonk, we noticed a lot of trucks lying aside. Showing the deserted road, Raghuveer singh, the driver said, "You find this road in this way till Kota. Five years ago, it was all packed with trucks." He added showing the trucks, "Ye sab do no. gaadi hai. Ek ke paas permit nahi hai." He began the story of Sand Mafia. 

There are five police stations in between Tonk and Jaipur. There's a ban on sand digging near the river, yet there are hundreds of trucks that take the sand every night, and it's every night. 

Each truck has a gang to cover up. There's one scorpio behind and a motor bike ahead. Each of them check with the police. If they find that there's some checking they stop the truck mid way through call and ask to halt or find a route into interior village to hide. "Lakh ka business hai sir. Isme. Sona se jyaada mehenga hai." He pointed. 

The Banas River

All our journey, we had a lot to discuss on this mafia. How does individuals take out in trolleys, save it near their fields, villages and whenever a buyer comes with their truck, he find 5 of such trolley people and buy sand from them and send it off away. 

"What does police do?" I asked.  "Every person in this thaane is rich. Har truck se 1000 aatha hai. Har station mei ye jaatha hai."  The first station that's near this river basin gets the large chunk of money. 100 trucks go by night and by one day the police make a lakhs. In such way, the system is well maintained. 

Listening more to  Raghuveer, He told how construction hasn't been stopped in Jaipur despite COVID situation. I wondered how there's dark business behind every construction we see in the cities.