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Drive against sand-mining; boats seized

STERN ACTION: A revenue raid party, led by Sub-Collector Pranab Jyotinath, crosses the Manimala river with the country boats seized at Karutha-Vadasserikkadavu, near Kallooppara, on Saturday.

PATHANAMHITTA: In a drive against sand-mining in the Manimala and Pampa, the revenue special squad led by Thiruvalla Sub-Collector Pranab Jyotinath seized huge quantity of sand, countryboats and trucks on Saturday.

The Sub-Collector told The Hindu that the raid was conducted on the directives of Revenue Principal Secretary Nivedita P. Haran in an effort to contain illegal sand collection from the rivers.

District Collector Raju Narayanaswamy held discussions with the Revenue officials tipped for the raid before they swooped on the sand ‘mafia’. Though the information regarding the raid was communicated from the higher level to the lower level revenue staff only late, somehow the news leaked out, making many of the ‘mafia’ to keep off rivers.

The raid began at 12 in the midnight on Friday and continued till 1.30 p.m. on Saturday. The raid party had also caught a driver of a lorry used for sand smuggling from Komalamkadavu. Two trucks and six countryboats were seized from different Kadavus, besides around 40 lorry loads of illegally quarried river during the raid.

With the seizure of six more countryboats on Saturday, the total number of countryboats seized by the Thiruvalla Sub-Collector from the Manimala and Pampa during the past 29 days had gone up to 26.

The raid party was divided into five different groups to facilitate easy operation and the anti-river activity was found at its worst in the Kallooppara, Puramattom and Kaviyoor panchayat limits.

About 30 lorry loads of illegally quarried sand was found heaped at the Komalamkadavu and a lorry driver, identified as Saji (22), was caught from the spot. The lorry driver was handed over to the Kizhvaipur police. The accused would be produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate in Thiruvalla on Saturday itself, the police said.

He said another lorry used for illegal sand transportation was caught from a Kadvu in Pampa. The Sub-Collector said the raid to check anti-river activity would continue.

Staff Reporter writes from Kollam: Thirty-one lorries were seized by Revenue authorities in Kollam on Saturday under charges of illegal transportation of sand and rock. The seizures were made during raids by a special revenue squad, led by District Collector A. Shajehan, simultaneously on various locations in the five taluks of the district.

Mr. Shajehan said the raids were part of strong measures being initiated against unauthorised mining of sand and rock.

The government had issued directives with regard to it. In the five taluks, the revenue teams were led by the respective tahsildars.

A team led by the Collector seized two jackhammers and a cache of explosives from Elamad.

The jackhammers were operated without licence and the explosives stored without permit. Out of the seized trucks, 16 were transporting sand and 15, rock.

In Kollam taluk, five areas were raided, in Karunagapally three, in Kottarakara and Kunnathur two each and in Pathanapuram one.

The Collector said the raids against unauthorised sand and rock mining would continue.

Staff Reporter adds from Alappuzha: A man was arrested and 46 vehicles and 14 boats were seized in raids on sand-mining spots in the district on Saturday. Sixty cases of illegal sand-mining were detected, District Collector V.K. Balakrishnan said.

At a press conference, he said 27 vehicles and 14 boats were released after imposing penalties. An amount of Rs. 2.25 lakh was collected as penalty in the 60 cases detected till 4 p.m. The raids began at 5 a.m. under the supervision of tahsildars of each taluk.

He said the highest number of cases was detected in Mavelikara taluk, where five raids led to the detection of 22 cases and seizure of 22 vehicles. The highest total fine of Rs. 1 lakh was collected from the taluk, the Collector said.

Ambalapuzha with 12 cases, Cherthala and Kuttanad with nine cases each and Karthikapally with eight cases followed, while three raids in Chengannur failed to produce results.

One lorry driver was arrested when he escaped from the raiding party and drove away his vehicle. He was chased and nabbed by the police, Mr. Balakrishnan said. Raids would continue till mining came to a halt. The raids would target those involved in illegal quarrying of hills.

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