Sunil is a young civil servant and has a reputation for his competence, integrity, dedication and relentness pursuit of difficult and onerous jobs. Considering his profile, he was picked up by his bosses to handle a very challenging and sensitive assignment. He was posted in a tribal dominated district notorious for illegal sand mining. Excavating sand from river belt and transporting through trucks and selling them in black market was rampant. This illegal sand mining mafia was operating with the support of local functionaries and tribal musclemen who in turn were bribing selected poor tribals and had kept the tribals under fear and intimidation.
Sunil being a sharp and energetic officer immediately grasped the ground realities and the modus operandi followed by the mafia through their devious and dubious mechanism. On making inquiries, he gathered that some of their own office employees are in hand and glove with them and have developed close unholy nexus. Sunil initiated stringent action against them and started conducting raids on their illegal operations of movement of trucks filled with sand. The mafia got rattled as not many officers in the past had taken such strong steps against the mafia. Some of the office employees who were allegedly close to mafia informed them that the officer is determined to clean up the mafia’s illegal sand mining operations in that district and may cause them irrepairable damage.
The mafia turned hostile and launched counter-offensive. The tribal musclemen and mafia started threatening him with dire consequences. His family (wife and old mother) were stalked and were under virtual surveillance and thus causing mental torture, agony and stress to all of them. The matter assumed serious proportions when a muscleman came to his office and threatened him to stop raids, etc., otherwise, his fate will not be different than some of his predecessors (ten years back one officer was killed by the mafia).
(a) Identify the different options available to Sunil in attending to this situation. (b) Critically evaluate each of the options listed by you. (c) Which of the above, do you think, would be the most appropriate for Sunil to adopt and why?
Approach · directive: “identify / critically evaluate / which”
What it asks · (a) List Sunil's options; (b) evaluate each critically; (c) choose the most appropriate and justify it.
The question has 3 parts — answer each
- (a) Identify the options available to Sunil in this situation
- (b) Critically evaluate each option
- (c) Choose the most appropriate option for Sunil and justify it
Open with · Aristotle's courage is the mean between cowardice and rashness: Sunil must neither retreat before the mafia nor act alone and endanger his family.
Cover
- Stakeholders: Sunil and his family, tribal residents, colluding staff, the mafia, police and superiors, the environment and the public exchequer.
- (a) Options: continue raids; seek security and escalate threats formally; act against colluding staff; win community support; go slow or seek transfer.
- (b) Continue alone: upholds law but exposes family and isolates him. Go slow or transfer out: safe, but betrays duty and emboldens the mafia.
- (b) Formal escalation and security: lawful and protective but depends on responsive superiors. Action against staff: cuts leaks but needs evidence and time.
- (b) Community support: sustainable and reduces fear, but tribals may not speak up at first; needs protection, livelihoods and legal, affordable sand supply.
- (c) Best: combine them: secure the family, report threats in writing, file an FIR, act on staff, and track trucks with GPS and e-permits.
- Values: courage, integrity and accountability; family safety is legitimate, so persist within law and with backing, not solo heroics or retreat.
- Anchors: Aristotle's courage as the mean; MoEFCC sand-mining guidelines (ADM-led task force, GPS/RFID tracking); Gujarat's Trinetra drones; PESA gram sabha consent.
Close with · A mafia thrives on isolated officers; courage backed by records, technology and the community outlasts courage alone.
Add value (verified)
- In a Scheduled Area, PESA (1996) makes the recommendation of the gram sabha or the panchayat at the appropriate level mandatory before any prospecting licence or mining lease for minor minerals such as sand, which gives the tribal community a legal lever against the mafia. The Provisions of the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, section 4(k), Ministry of Tribal Affairs ↗“the recommendations of the Gram Sabha or the Panchayats at the appropriate level shall be made mandatory prior to grant of prospecting licence or mining lease for minor minerals in the Scheduled Areas”
- Aristotle: courage is the mean regarding fear and confidence; the man who exceeds in confidence is rash, and he who exceeds in fear is a coward. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II (trans. W. D. Ross) — The Internet Classics Archive, MIT ↗“With regard to feelings of fear and confidence courage is the mean; of the people who exceed, he who exceeds in fearlessness has no name (many of the states have no name), while the man who exceeds in confidence is rash, and he who exceeds in fear and falls short in confidence is a coward.”
- MoEFCC sand-mining guidelines: district task forces headed by an officer not below ADM rank, strict night surveillance, and Gujarat's 'Trinetra' programme of night-vision drones against illegal mining. Enforcement & Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, January 2020 ↗“The Taskforce shall be headed by officer not less than ADM rank and quarterly outcome shall be submitted to District administration. In addition to the above, there is a need for strict surveillance, particularly at night. The State of Gujarat has already initiated a program called ‘Trinetra’ for night surveillance by using night-vision drones to control illegal mining incidents.”
- MoEFCC sand-mining guidelines: the route of each sand vehicle from source to destination is to be tracked with checkpoints, RFID tags and GPS. Enforcement & Monitoring Guidelines for Sand Mining, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, January 2020 ↗“vii. The route of the vehicle from source to destination shall be tracked through the system using checkpoints, Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, and Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking.”
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2021, GS Paper IV — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 381 words (UPSC limit 250) · Minimalist IAS
Aristotle placed courage as the mean between cowardice and rashness. Sunil's test is exactly that: neither retreat before a mafia that has killed before, nor solo heroics that endanger his family.
Stakeholders and ethical issues
- Stakeholders: Sunil and his family; intimidated tribals; colluding staff; the mafia; police and superiors; the river and the exchequer.
- Issues: duty versus family safety; a leaking office; exploited tribals; the river's ecology; the state's duty to protect honest officers.
(a) Options available, and (b) their critical evaluation
- Go slow or seek transfer: keeps the family safe, but rewards intimidation, abandons the tribals and tells every successor that threats work.
- Continue raids as before: upholds the law, but the office leak survives and he risks the fate of the officer who was killed; this is rashness.
- Report threats formally: an FIR for criminal intimidation, a written report and security cover; necessary, but alone it does not stop the mining.
- Clean the office: move colluding staff from sensitive seats and start proceedings; cuts the leak, but needs evidence and time.
- Community and systems: gram sabhas, livelihoods, legal sand supply and technology; durable but slow, and tribals may not speak up at first.
(c) The most appropriate course, and why
- Combine the last three, in sequence: first secure the family and put every threat on record, so that the state, not Sunil alone, owns the risk.
- Systems over personal raids: MoEFCC's sand-mining guidelines call for district task forces headed by an officer not below ADM rank and GPS, RFID and checkpoint tracking of every vehicle; Gujarat's Trinetra watches mines at night with drones.
- Bring tribals in: in a Scheduled Area, PESA (1996) makes the recommendation of the gram sabha or the appropriate-level panchayat mandatory before minor-mineral leases; add witness protection, livelihoods and affordable legal sand.
- Why: it is courage as the mean: lawful persistence without rashness, family safety treated as legitimate, and the nexus attacked at its roots.
Long-term fix
- Systemic: transparent auctions, published lease maps, rotation on mining desks, a whistle-blower channel and visible protection for officers who act.
A mafia thrives on isolated officers. Sunil must make sure he is not one: courage backed by records, technology and the community outlasts courage alone.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify) — a little fuller than exam length, so every part of the question is covered; in the hall, keep the structure and trim the detail. UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.