Daijiworld Media Network - Bantwal (SP)

Bantwal, Jul 22: Revenue and gram panchayat officials, in a joint raid conducted on Tuesday July 21 at a spot where huge quantity of sand was found stored on the banks of River Netravati near Thumbe, confiscated stock of sand valued at lacs of rupees. This information was given by revenue department officials.

During the raid, it was observed that an illegal road was laid to the banks of River Netravati. Sand was mined by using JCBs at night. Thumbe gram panchayat members said that a complaint about this illegal sand mining had been submitted to the assistant commissioner at Mangaluru, but nothing was done to stop this illegal mining.

Panchayat members, who passed on information about the stock of sand to the officials, rushed there with them. Acting on this information, village accountant, Pradeep Kumar, panchayat development officer, Shivanand, conducted a joint raid and confiscated the stock of sand. The officials said they would send report about the incident to the tahsildar.

The officials said that sand was being transported into Kerala via Mudipu through trucks at night from this spot. It is said that there was political pressure on the officials not to register cases, but they went ahead with the registration of cases, which came in for appreciation of the public. The gram panchayat members of Thumbe have warned that they will hold protest if the district administration fails to initiate steps towards totally regulating sand mining from the river from Thumbe area.