Despite the ban on lifting sand from the riverbed for three months between 15 June and 15 September, a dozen…
(Photo: Getty Images)
Despite the ban on lifting sand from the riverbed for three months between 15 June and 15 September, a dozen senior officials with the district administration and district police were surprised to see desperate illegal sand mining in Burdwan (East) on Monday.
The officials collected fine worth Rs 12 lakh from 35 vehicles and seized five sand loaded tractors. The officials, after the raids, declared on Monday that frequent raids will be conducted on the Damodar and the Ajoy riverbeds hereafter.
The chief minister’s office received several complaints against rampant illegal sand mining and in many cases under the active patronage of the local, block and sistrict leaders of the ruling party across Burdwan (East). Also, several road mishaps in Katwa, Burdwan and Kalna sub-divisions occurred due to rash driving of the illegally sand loaded trucks and tractors.
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On Monday, the team led by the district magistrate and the SP, Burdwan (East), Mr Anurag Srivastava and Mr Bhaskar Mukherjee conducted the raid in which ADM (Land Revenue), Mr Pronob Biswas, ASP, Mr Priyobrata Roy, Regional Transport Officer, Mr Abrar Alam also were accommodated. The team raided three locations – Bankura Morh on Burdwan – Arambagh road link, at Chanchai on Hooghly road and at Palsit on NH 2.
The DM, Mr Srivastava said: “The district altogether has allowed to run 200 sand pits, which helped generation of Rs 150 crores of state revenue during the auction. The pits subscribe Rs 40 crore to the state exchequer annually as royalty.” But, the district also has seen mushrooming of uncountable illegal sand pits. The DM said: “Our raid has begun against those illegal operators. Besides, special checking against the overloaded truckloads.”
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