West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said Birbhum district collected a record Rs 3.44 crore in revenue from stone sales and transportation in a single day, highlighting a sharp rise in receipts from the state’s stone-mining areas.
According to a report by Bartaman Patrika, the collection was made on Sunday through the District Collection Receipt, or DCR, system used for stone, stone chips, boulders and sand transported from quarries and mining zones. The chief minister announced the figure in a social-media post on Monday.
The reported one-day collection was higher than the total revenue collected from Birbhum in October last year, according to the figures cited by the chief minister. The comparison was presented as evidence of a new record in revenue collection from the district’s stone trade.
The chief minister also said West Bengal collected Rs 32.17 crore from stone during the first 11 days of October this year. She expressed the expectation that the state could exceed its target of collecting Rs 100 crore a month from stone quarries if the current pace continued.
The DCR system provides government transit and toll receipts when stone and other quarry materials are transported. The receipts are intended to record movement from quarry and mining areas and provide a mechanism for collecting revenue on those transactions. The system therefore links the movement of construction materials with district administration and state revenue monitoring.
The reported increase is significant for Birbhum, where multiple stone quarries operate and where stone, chips and boulders form part of the supply chain for construction and infrastructure work. However, the report does not provide a breakdown of the number of consignments, the volume of material moved, the applicable rates, or the share of revenue collected from individual quarry areas.
The chief minister attributed the improved collection to the role of the Birbhum district administration and the state land department in preventing revenue evasion. In a social-media statement cited by the report, Suvendu Adhikari said that transparent administration and discipline in revenue collection were the government’s commitment.
The revenue figures have also reopened a political and administrative question over Birbhum’s earlier collections. The chief minister questioned why revenue from the district’s stone quarries had previously remained comparatively low despite the presence of several mining areas, and criticised the earlier Trinamool Congress government over the issue.
The report does not establish whether the latest increase reflects higher stone production, stronger enforcement, improved documentation, changes in demand, or a combination of these factors. It also does not provide an independent audit or a district-wise comparison with other mining regions.
For the state, the next administrative test will be whether the reported increase can be sustained through regular monitoring of quarry operations, transport permits and DCR receipts. The government’s stated monthly target remains the next benchmark for assessing the collection trend.
