Bhadrachalam Model of Sand mining by Tribal women

G.Veerapandian, Joint Collector, Srikakulam

Dr. N.Bharath Gupta, Sub Collector, Madanapally

Bhadrachalam Model of Sand

miningAn initiative of District Collector, Khammam to entrust the sand mining to the local ST women by forming them into a society in Godavari sand reaches

Organized the awareness programme to the STs in this regard on 31.07.2012 at Palvoncha with the support of VC & MD, APMDC

Real implementation of PESA in mining and thus the first of its kind in the country

Started with Gommukothagudem in September 2012.

Formation of MACSAll women in a village were formed into Mutually Aided Cooperative Society (MACS).

One women from each family were given membership.

SHG women were made as Board of Directors.

Totally seven MACS were formed and entrusted with the responsibility of Sand mining operations.

Sand mining operations

Each MACS had the responsibility of mining the sand manually by engaging its own villagers (both women and men) and hiring tractors.

Wage rate per trip for labourers and Rent per trip for tractors were fixed by Gram Sabha (Ex: wage of Rs.200/- & rent of Rs.100/).

Wage and RentFour or Five persons will be made into a group and attached with one tractor. Wage and rent will be disbursed to the extent of trip made by a group and tractor in a day.

Ex: If four persons mined and stocked 10 trips in a day, that group would get total wage of Rs. 2000/- and the same would be distributed equally as Rs.500/- per person and rent of Rs. 1000/-.

Payment will be done on weekly basis. One person may get Rs.3500/- per week and Rs. 15000/- per month if they mine ten trips of sand in a day for all 30 days in a month.

Sale of sandAs per the APMDC guidelines, 25% of totally mined sand will be made available for local uses at SSR rate of Rs. 425/- per cu mtr of sand and 25% for Govt works at SSR rate.

50% of mined sand will be sold off commercially for any purchaser through public auction. Totally mined sand were divided into different lots like five lots of 20000 cu mtr for 1 lakh cu mtr sand which were auctioned publicly in transparent manner. Rate of one cu mtr sand will be fixed at public auction.

Public auction was done by officials on behalf of MACS since they do not have technical and administrative capacity as per the guidelines.

Highest bidder will issue DD to the joint account held by President of MACS, Sub Collector and PO, ITDA.

Administrative Structure

The following staff was appointed by the society at the reach for assisting them to run the sand reach operations –

Manager

Accountant

Mining Point Supervisor and Stocking Point Supervisor

Data Entry Operator

Office Boy

Day time Watchman and Night time Watchman

Records Maintenance

Following registers have been maintained by each MACS:

Attendance Register

Stock Point Register

Mining Point register

Way Bill Register

Dispatch Register

Accounts Book

Cash Book

Wage and Rent Payment Register

Minutes Book

Profit sharing methodology

Profit earned after the payment of wage and rent and incurring other expenditure, the following way was followed in sharing the total profit:

50% of the profit goes to Gram Panchayat for its developmental works

25% shall be retained as reserve fund by the society.

25% will be shared equally amongst all members as dividends.

Mining Performance of the Reaches

STATEMENT SHOWING SAND REACHES WISE MINING QUANTITY

S. No Name of the Sand Reach Total Quantity of sand leased out (in Cu Mtr)

Total Quantity of sand actually mined (in Cu

Mtr)

Total Quantity of sand actually mined (in %)

1 Gommu Kothagudem 2,60,000 144492 55.5%

2 Gommugudem 2,40,000 92779 38.6%3 Mogallapalli 2,40,000 88150 36.7%4 Morramvanigudem 2,40,000 63657 26.5%5 Bhadrachalam 2,38,000 67555 28.4%6 Pathagommuru 2,50,000 65375 26.2%

Total 14,68,000 5,22,008 35.5%

Financial Statistics of Sand Reaches

11

STATEMENT SHOWING THE PARTICULARS OF SAND REACHES WISE FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS

S. No

Name of the Sand Reach

Total Amount Received through

DDSLabour Payment

Tractors Payment

Income Tax+ VAT+ Way Bills

ChallanOther Expenditure Total Expenditure

Balance (Approximate Profit)

1

Gommu Kothagudem 41843810 3366362 2678540 3708060 3167283 12920245 28923565

2Gommugudem 35586640 4871655 4051600 6256331 2174672 17354258 18232382

3 Mogallapalli 22233000 4242598 4508490 3890032 3135386 15776506 6456494

4Morramvanigudem 25700193 3330094 2375040 2500832 3870750 12076716 13623477

5 Bhadrachalam 31117185 2706455 3082820 2183367 3246960 11219602 19897583

6Pathagommuru 26028990 2070231 2225400 2000000 3198580 9494211 16534779

Total182509818 20587395 18921890 20538622 18793631 78841538 103668280

100% 11.28% 10.36% 11.25% 10.31% 43.2% 56.8%

Financial Statistics (Percentage)

12

Wage Payment for Labour

Rent Payment for

Tractors

Income Tax+ VAT+ Way

Bills Challan

Other Expenditure

Total Expenditure

Balance (Approximate

Profit)

Total Amount Received

through DDS

2,05,87,395 1,89,21,890 2,05,38,622 1,87,93,631 7,88,41,538 10,36,68,280 18,25,09,818

11.28% 10.36% 11.25% 10.31% 43.20% 56.80% 100 %

OutcomesProtection of community ownership over natural resources to the local tribes and thereby eliminating alienation and exploitation of tribes

Wage employment opportunity to local tribe women. Average wage of Rs. 800 per day with highest of Rs.3000/- and the lowest of Rs.400/-

Regular income to the Govt in the form of Seignorage Fee and different taxes.

Sustainable use of natural resources and ecological conservation by community.

Creation of durable assets and developmental activities.

Improvement in standard of living of local villagers and impact on social, economical and political life of tribal women ( 3 Sarpanch).

Ensuring local self governance in true spirit.

Problems faced - ISudden money circulation on large scale turned into financial irregularities and internal strife among the society members and villagers.

No proper legal backing for many procedures resulted in filing court cases which interrupted the operations.

Poor entrepreneurial skills which brought sand contractors as intermediaries.

Poor capacity and lack of administrative experience in managing labours and allocating works led to delay in weekly payment of wage and rent which hampered the speed and regularity of work.

Problems faced - IILack of financial administrative skills in handling money on large scale (50 lakh to one crore) leads to variations in account books and actual balance.

Nexus with sand contractors in siphoning off the sand through overloading.

Absence of supervisory staff and technical staff as to have regular check on financial transactions, expenditure incurred and over exploitation.

Obstruction from enforcement agencies, media and sand mafia.

Suggestions for Improvement - I

Isolation of MACS completely from marketing of sand. MACS shall sell mined sand only to APMDC. In turn, APMDC dispose the sand off to buyers as per norms.

Sharing of profit must be very low as to control sudden money flow and larger share to be deposited with District Collector to take up district level developmental activities.

Part of profit may be shared with local bodies of GP, MPP and ZP if reach is located in rural areas and Municipality/Municipal Corporation if it is in urban areas.

There shall be specific office procedure and file movement to be spelt out clearly. Separate Sand Cell has to be established as to coordinate between MACS, APMDC and District Administration.

Technical staff from APMDC shall be drafted for each sand reach and MPDO/ any Mandal level officer may be directed to look after the supervision over the administrative and financial transactions of MACS.

Suggestions for Improvement - II

Roles and Responsibilities of each official shall be fixed unambiguously at every stage of mining process. District Collector/Authorised officer must be overall authority to take decisions reg every stage of this whole process.

There shall be weekly online payment of wages and rent directly to the bank accounts of labour and tractor owner without fail.

Auditing of accounts and other records shall be done once in every three months (Quarterly) by concerned departments.

End to end automated work flow (usage of technological interventions in NREGS & SERP) shall be brought in like eMuster, M-Book keeping, stocking, lifting, etc.,

Expenditure for laying road, hiring JCB and other equipments shall be estimated and approved by APMDC.

Team who made it possible..

Sri. D.Srinivasulu, IAS, Principal Secretary (Mines & Geology).

Sri. Mukesh K Meena, IAS, VC & MD, APMDC

Sri. Siddharth Jain, IAS, District Collector, Khammam

Sri. M.M.Naik, IAS, Joint Collector, Khammam

Sri. G.Veerapandian, IAS, PO, ITDA, Bhadrachalam

Dr. Narayana Bharath Gupta, IAS, Sub Collector, Bhadrachalam

Office Bearers of All seven MACS and Villagers

Staff and officials of ITDA and office of Sub Collector, Bhadrachalam

Community participation and tribal women empowerment

in its true sense..

Thank you...