Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

22 country boats seized, one held

Special Correspondent

In day-long drive against sand-mining

Thiruvananthapuram: Revenue and police officials seized 22 country boats and 15 loads of sand in a day-long operation against unauthorised sand-mining in the Poovar area of Neyyattinkara taluk, near here, on Saturday. One person was taken into custody for attacking police officials involved in the raid.

The raid team led by Revenue Divisional Officer K.V. Mohankumar had a difficult time locating the boats which were weighed down with sand bags, chained to each other and lowered to the river-bed to avoid detection. Having faced a series of raids over the past few months, the sand-mining workers had devised ingenious methods to conceal their boats and equipment.

They used several decoys to throw the revenue officials off track. While the boats were hidden underwater well away from the riverbanks, heavy tree trunks were lowered into the water close to the banks with ropes attached to them. Plastic bottles, normally used by fishermen as buoys to detect submerged objects, were tied to the ropes and left to float on the surface.

Misled by the decoys, the raid team comprising 600 workers wasted more than an hour before it zeroed in on the location of the submerged boats.

The workers were transported to the location in a speed boat. A lot of effort was required to raise the boats from the riverbed and pull them ashore.

While one section of the team raised the boats, the other used ropes and pulleys to pull them ashore.

The seized boats were later loaded onto lorries and taken to the Neyyattinkara taluk office. Some of the boats were damaged while being loaded.

At Arakunnukadavu, the officials leading the raid came under attack from a sand-mining worker who tried to resist the operation.

A police official was punched and kicked before the assailant was overpowered. Yohannan was later arrested and taken to the Pozhiyoor police station.

While 10 loads of sand seized from the area were given to the district Nirmithi Kendra, five loads were taken to the taluk office.

The operation which began early in the morning went on till 7 p.m. Neyyattinkara Deputy Superintendent of Police Ramachandran, Neyyattinkara additional tahsildar Madhu Gangadharan and Thiruvananthapuram additional tahsildar Madhu participated in the raid.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Pollution testing centres to be upgraded
Suspend Sethusamudram work, says Joshi
City roads: impasse continues
22 country boats seized, one held
A memorable gift
Action against institutions with no infrastructure
Milad-I-Sherif observed
Burglaries: one arrested
In Thiruvananthapuram Today

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu