BELAGAVI | Apr 08, 2015: Illegal sand mining has become rampant and reached its peak in the district under the nose of police, district administration and political personalities. No hard efforts are being seemed to prevent it on behalf of any concerned authorities.
Since the high court imposed stringent guidelines over extracting of sand from rivers and banned extracting sand from river when there is water, district began facing shortage of sand. Due to shortage, sand rates have been skyrocketed and caused for increase in the illegal sand mining. Rates of per load sand have reached Rs 25,000 and above.
In order to curb illegal sand mining, past DC Anbukumar had taken several stringent steps against sand mafia. Because of his initiatives, within few months, more than 320 cases were registered in concern to illegal sand mining besides 322 people were arrested and same number of vehicles seized. This apart, more than Rs 57 lakhs fine was collected.
Since the DC Anbukumar's transfer, the action against illegal sand miners has been considerably slowed down, giving free hand to the lawbreakers. The initiative taken against sand mafia by the district administration and police department in past 16 months is disappointing because of that mafia maintained upper hand. Just 170 cases have been registered in these months by arresting 237 people. As many as 247 vehicles have been seized by collecting mere Rs 24 lakhs altogether fine.
One of the lorry owner from Chikkodi, with condition to not disclosing his name told that, he pay Rs 2,000 to the police for the transportation of per load sand without permit, beside he also pay Rs 200 each whenever any police stopped the lorry midway. He said there are many number of lorry owners happy to pay Rs 2,000 - Rs 3,000 to police. There is no much profit in transporting sand from stockyards of PWD department by availing permit lawfully.
It's no secret that lorry owners' link with the local politicians, which protect them at the last moment. Illegal sand minors put the motor boat in the river water and extract the sand, violating the high court guidelines.
District administration is kept on saying since past two years about installing CCTV cameras and GPS technology to monitor the functioning of check-posts and sand stockyards. It was also said that, the security of check-posts will be entrusted to private agencies and night patrolling will be increased. But none of these initiatives came into reality.
SP Ravikante Gowda, said every steps is being taken to prevent illegal sand mining. Sub-division-wise squads are formed to keep eye on illegal sand mining and transportation. Vehicles have been provided to these squads, which visit sand blocks and the places where they conducted raid earlier to ensure the situation regularly. Cases are being booked against owner and driver of the vehicle involved in illegal sand transportation, besides owner of the land where illegal sand mining is allowed, he said.
District administration has identified 33 sand blocks in the district covering 709 acres area. Of the 33 blocks, tenders are finalized for extracting sand from 16 blocks while other blocks are under tendering process since past several months. The delay in tendering process is also causing for sand shortage and indirectly benefiting sand mafia.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)