Kerala - Pathanamthitta   

Concern over sand smuggling

Staff Reporter

Hindumatha Parishad to launch agitation at Cherukolpuzha soon

FACING THREAT: A view of the Cherukolpuzha sandbed in the Pampa river, venue of the nine-decade old annual Cherukolpuzha Hindu religious meet, near Kozhencherry.

PATHANAMTHITTA: The Ayroor-Cherukolpuzha Hindumatha Parishad, which organises the nine-decade old annual Hindu religious meet on the sandbed of river Pampa at Cherukolpuzha, near Kozhencherry, has condemned the alleged official inaction towards the smuggling of river sand from the convention venue under the cover of night.

In a statement issued here on Thursday, Parishad president and former president of the Travancore Devaswom Board T.N.Upendranatha Kurup alleged that the sand smuggling from the Cherukolpuzha sandbed was rampant during night. Talking to The Hindu , Mr. Kurup alleged that the inaction on the part of the district administration, the Mining and Geology Department, the local self-government and the police, despite the repeated plea of the Parishad to check the illegal activity was strange.

He said that the Parishad will soon launch an agitation against the plundering of sand from river beds and the alleged official indifference towards the `destruction' of the historic sandbed.

Mr. Kurup alleged that the river sand smuggling from Cherukolpuzha was with the "silent blessings" of certain politicians and a powerful section of the official machinery. He also alleged that the `sand mafiaraj' thrives in the river basin of Pampa, making a mockery of the law and order machinery and the prevailing laws of the land. The authorities who are bound to ensure adequate protection of the river system and resources have miserably failed in ensuring the protection of even the historic sand beds like that of Cherukolpuzha, he alleged. He has alleged that the Samiti plea to check the "anti-river activities" in the Pampa too fell on deaf ears.

He has alleged that illegal sand quarrying was rampant in the downstream of the sandbed and in the vicinity of the bridges at Kozhencherry and Cherukolpuzha. There were also reports of the sand mafia "preparing the grounds" for illegal sand smuggling through the Kolathu kadavu, a few metres upstream of the Kozhencherry Bridge.

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Concern over sand smuggling

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