Balasore Collector retaliates against West Bengal Sand Mafia

In  major  steps towards  stopping of illegal sand siphoning from river bed of Subarnarekha allegedly  by the  mafias of West Bengal  the district administration carried out a raid in the patches Raibania under Jaleswar tehsil  with six platoon  of force on Thursday.

The raid was conducted in presence of the district collector Sanatan Mallick. The local Tehsildar Rajanikanta Biswal, tehsildar of Baliapal Pratap Chandra Beuria and the sub divisional  police officer Satyaranjan Mallick headed  the raiding teams . The team besides dismantling 8 quarrying units also made their machines including swamp machines inoperative.

With this the administration took 12 quarrying patches operational in villages of Dakshin Praharajpur, Berasahi and Totapada under its control. It may be recalled earlier on February 11, 3 persons were arrested on the charge of lifting sand from Subarnarekha river bed illegally. The accused   persons were  identified  as Dipu Dinda, 48, Mohammad Dular, 21 and Mohammad Izban,22  all resident of  Bengal . Then team had seized a JCB machine, a tractor and other.

The district administration alleged that some sand mafias belonging to border villages of Bengal were lifting huge quantity of sand from Subarnarekha river bed patches under the jurisdiction of Odisha illegally.

Despite warning to them and earlier raiding action about 2 weeks ago yet the lifting was going unabated. Yesterday the raiding team dismantled 8 sand quarrying machineries and made them     inoperative.

“Mafias   of Bengal Bengal were quarrying   sand from Odisha portion despite earlier action and warnings. They were stealing huge quantity of sand with the help of powerful machineries from our patch for years. Despite earlier actions and repeated  warnings while they didn’t pay any heed the action was taken ” district collector Mallick said adding he had appraised  about the development to   additional chief secretary Taradutt  adding further  that the force was still  deployed  in the patch because  of the palpable tension    .

“ The illegal practice was going on for at least   20 years . We   would auction those patches this year and expect to earn around Rs 30 crore revenue. We are planning to initiate similar action in Mankadia village where 4 patches are under the grip of Bengal sand mafias, ” Rajanikanta Biswal, tehsildar said.