E-Paper
Illegal sand mining racket busted, activists suspect govt. officials involved
According to the activists, some of the government staff, too, are involved in the racket as workers at the mining site had already escaped when the police arrived
An illegal sand mining racket was busted from the Mutha riverbed at Shivne by a team of Pune district officials along with the police department on Thursday night. This, despite the state government having strictly prohibited sand mining in any of the riverbed areas.
A raid was carried out and a JCB machine and a tractor were seized from the spot following repeated complaints from local citizens and civic activists. According to the activists, some of the government staff, too, are involved in the racket as workers at the mining site had already escaped when the police arrived.
Sarang Yadwadkar, environmentalist and city-based activist, said, “There is a huge sand mining racket operational in the Mutha riverbed area which is behind the Nanded city area. We have complained about this issue several times at all levels of the Pune district and state government machinery. The issue came to light after some responsible citizens from nearby areas objected to the sand mining going on a few months back and after several complaints, the activity was stopped around three months ago. Whereas again it started from yesterday and so, we immediately complained to the concerned government and police authorities, and the raid was conducted last night.”
“During the last three months, the people who were carrying out this illegal sand mining tried to contact the complainants and tried to hush-up the matter with some kind of settlement. So, our question is how information about the complainants has been shared with the accused people. In yesterday’s raid as well, the people carrying out the illegal activity had already escaped from the spot when the official team reached there. We suspect someone from the government team is also involved in the racket. We have already met Pune divisional commissioner Saurabh Roa and Pune district collector Rajesh Deshmukh this week and demanded strict action against the people involved in this illegal sand mining,” said Yadwadkar.
The raid was carried out by a team led by Haveli taluka tehsildar Trupti Kolte Patil along with Warje police station officials. A JCB machine and a tractor with an attached sand mining filter net were seized from the spot. “Sand mining is mostly carried out at night and when we got to know about it, we rushed to the spot. This time, we did not go along with the big team as we wanted to keep a low profile and catch the people responsible. However, before we could reach the spot, they had escaped. Because we blocked the road from the front however, we were able to seize their machines and we are now tracing the owners. The police will trace the owners and file a complaint against them, and we will also take action against them as per the rules,” said Patil.
While Shankar Khatke, senior police inspector and in-charge of Warje police station, said, “We have lodged an FIR about yesterday’s sand mining raid and have found out the names of the owners of the vehicles that were found at the spot. No one has been arrested yet and further investigation is going on.”
