A RAGING SANDSTORM

A newbie chief minister always elicits some curiosity. Add some extra layers to that when you have someone like Rajasthan's Bhajan Lal Sharma, who came from beyond the pale of perhaps his own ambition to occupy high office.

- Rohit Parihar

What kind of political personality would he develop as a CM? What policy orientation will he exhibit? The answer came as he drew lines in the sand literally, with a new turn to the policy for mining sand from river beds. People got their first glimpse of it when his regime launched a major Aassault against illegal mining, striking at a vast, shadowy business centred around 'the new gold'. Alleged bribes in sand mining are estimated to be to the tune of Rs 360 crore a year, against official annual revenues of only Rs 125 crore. Amid this murk, a 17-day special drive in January. Sharma's first major administrative initiative, totted up impressive figures: tracing illegal stock worth Rs 368 crore, and getting 2,643 cases registered, nearly half of all those filed in the financial year till then.

But what got everyone really sitting up and taking notice was its first high-profile target: Meghraj Singh Shekhawat, a major sand mining operator and hotelier with connections cutting across party lines. This happened via a simultaneous scaling up of operations. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), coming into the picture on February 14, began extensive three-day raids on Meghraj's properties across different locations, including his Jaipur residence, mining hubs and properties in Nagaur, Udaipur and the town where his career took off nearly four decades ago: Jaisalmer.