Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Jan 6: Acting under the instructions of Udupi district deputy commissioner (DC), Dr R Vishal, five docks standing by the side of River Panchagangavali at Kharvikeri here were dismantled by a joint operation launched by revenue inspector, police, and officials of the local town municipality. The DC had passed orders for the demolition of these illegal docks used for sand mining purposes, after complaint was received from members of Kharvi community, which predominantly is engaged in fishing activity here. The Kharvi community had approached the DC with a request to bring an end to illegal sand mining activity in their neighbourhood, after concluding that a recent murder in the area was executed through a careful plan hatched by workers involved with sand mining activity here. Backhoes were pressed into service for the operation.

Since last several years, illegal sand mining has been thriving at different places including Kharvikeri here. A number of demonstrations held in front of the offices of the tahsildar and subdivisional officer here against this activity had not yielded any positive results. In the recent past, Kharvi community had brought pressure on the district administration to intervene in the matter.

Revenue inspector, Thimmappa Shettigar, village accountant, Bharat Kumar, local police sub-inspector, Nassir Hussain, and some policemen participated in the operation.