The Sand and Silt Story

Layman's Perspective

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The Punjab floods of August 2025 were still raging, swallowing fields and depositing silt, when a political pronouncement cut through the devastation.

With Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann reportedly hospitalized, it was Manish Sisodia, AAP's man in the spotlight, who stepped up on September 7 to deliver what was pitched as a godsend relief. The houses were still submerged, cattle washed away, crops over 4 lakh acres of farmland damaged and fields laid to waste, when farmers were told that their salvation was here.

The government, in a move cheered as massive relief, announced: "Farmers, that sand piling up in your fields from the floods is yours to lift and sell." They called it ‘Jisda Khet, Ohdi Ret'-'your field, your sand'-a ticket out of ruin, paired with up to Rs.20,000 per acre for lost crops.

The message was clear: clear your land, pocket some cash. But walk the muddy trails of floods left in its wake and the farmers will tell you a different, far grittier truth: this is not relief; it is a betrayal etched in bureaucracy and land law

The Cruel Lie of Sand vs Silt

The core of the problem lies in a simple, cold, geological reality: most of what the rivers dumped isn't sand. It's silt. There is a stark difference between the two. Sand and gravel are coarse materials that drain well and command good prices in construction-they are currency. Silt, though? It is fine, gluey mud-Himalayan muck that hardens like concrete, sours the soil's pH, and chokes borewells. It is a curse, not a cure, Brick kilns pay handsome sums for good earth, but this sludge is trash. Selling it? Forget it.