HYDERABAD | Sept 22, 2015: Taking a serious note of the illegal sand mining operations in the twin states of Telangana and AP, a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court has directed the states to file counter affidavits, here Monday.

The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Dilip B Bhosale and Justice S V Bhatt also directed Telangana state authorities to submit copies of the orders issued by the magistrates of all the 10 districts in the state, for the release of vehicles seized on the charge of illegal transportation of sand.

With regard to allegations of illegal sand mining in Telangana state, the government counsel placed an action taken report before the bench which was hearing a PIL filed by D Praveen Kumar of “Watch - Voice of the People”, an NGO from Mahbubnagar district.

The petitioner organisation complained about inaction on the part of the authorities in curbing illegal sand mining in Mahbubnagar, where farmers were being killed for questioning illegal quarrying of sand from their agricultural lands without permission.

The government counsel informed the court that regular checks are being conducted to curb illegal sand mining in the districts. Local revenue and police officials have seized vehicles to check the menace. However, the owners of the vehicles approached the magisterial courts and obtained release orders, he informed.

The bench directed to submit the copies of the release orders issued by magistrates before the court by the next date of hearing, and posted the matter after two weeks.

During the course of hearing, the bench took exception to the usage ‘sand mafia’ in place of illegal sand mining.

(Source: http://www.newindianexpress.com/)