

Patna: A report sent by former Kaimur SP Shivdeep Lande to the Bihar Police headquarters last month says an organized crime syndicate is operating on NH2 (Grand Trunk Road betta and Delhi) in Bihar and Jharkhand in collusion with a section of transport, commercial taxes and police authorities and duping the Centre and the state governments of thousands of crores every year.

Kaimur falls on a stretch of the road on Bihar-UP border.

Sources said the extent of the revenue loss in Bihar alone can be gauged from how transport, mining and commercial taxes officials realized Rs 71.44 lakh as penalty from 500-odd trucks caught on September 27 by police at Karmnasa (Kaimur), one of the four integrated check posts installed by the state government.

Records maintained by the Karmnasa checkpost reveal that about 1.1 lakh trucks crossed the border to enter UP in November. If such checks had been conducted every day, Bihar could have realized at least Rs 158 crore in one month. This means the state is losing around Rs 1,800 crore every year in revenue related to commercial taxes and transport, the sources said, quoting the report. The report is said to have estimated that at least 20% of these trucks carry "subsidized" coal to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). Certain MSMEs get their supplies from their respective states, which are allocated a quota of coal by coalfields on the advice of the coal ministry as an incentive for generating employment in undeveloped regions.

Central Coalfields Limited sources told TOI on Monday that it supplies 4.47 lakh tonnes to Jharkhand and one lakh tonnes to Uttarakhand for the purpose. Though Bihar gets such coal from another coalfield, sources in the Bihar Industries Association said it has a quota of 3.85 lakh tonnes. However, when Bihar Police investigated the matter, it found most of the MSMEs non-existent.

The probe into the coal racket began when Lande was the SP of Rohtas district.

Jai Maa Kali Enterprises, Maa Shakti Trading and R K Enterprises of Dhanbad were not found anywhere at their addresses during a physical verification by police. Ganesh Luxmi Enterprises of Barkatta in Dhanbad was shut long ago, the report says.

Bhadra Kali Enterprises, Agrawal Coal Company, Maa Durga Traders, Anil Coal Suppliers Pvt Ltd, Saraswati Coal Agency, Jagdamba Enterprises, Poonam Suppliers and Tanmay Enterprises - all at Chandausi in UP - were also non-existent, the report says, adding some other firms were found running from just a room without even a warehouse to store the consignment.



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