Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)
Kundapur, Jan 13: Encroachment of river, reckless attitude towards law and media reporters, claims about payment of monthly bribes to department officials in mining and geology, arrogance arising out of belief that ministers have been backing the miners - everything that is going on at the sand looting spot at Kandlur near here is illegal and absurd. The sand mining barons here flex their muscles at the visiting media persons, talk of beating them up, and show such level of raw arrogance that the thought of mining barons of Ballari inescapably passes through the minds of visitors to this spot.
For the illegal mining that is completely against law going on at Kandlur, River Varahi has been encroached till halfway. When media persons went there to check the veracity of information provided to them by some locals, some unexpected and unbelievable incidents occurred. As soon as the vehicle carrying media representatives reached the spot, a gang of about ten to fifteen men, who looked like bodyguards, surrounded the vehicle. Some of these men shout at and threaten to beat up visitors too.
The gang also blocked the movement of media persons and sought to know the name of the person who complained to them about illegal sand mining here. This reckless insolence gives one the idea to which the sand mafia in the coastal district has developed its muscles.
This is not without plausible reasons. Most important among them is the fact that the concerned departments concede it as a normal occurrence. Some owners of sand mines, who do not want to be named, have been openly claiming that the district in-charge minister had permitted them to conduct sand mining at this spot.
The central spot of this illegal activity is located at the spot where the road which moves in front of Kavarady gram panchayat office towards the mosque meets River Varahi. Over 20 miners conduct illegal sand mining here. Surprisingly, none of them hold licences to conduct sand mining. Another strange thing is that neither the department of mines and geology, nor revenue, forest, or police departments have questioned the concerned, although about one and half acres of riverbed has been encroached upon for the activity. It is said that as soon as some policemen approach the area, they get telephone calls from the minister to stay away. There are concerted claims that no cases were registered against sand miners and only some fine was levied during the raid on illegal sand dock at Balkur on Sunday because of the fact that the illegal sand miners have the blesings of the minister.
Crores being swindled: River Varahi, which has immense wealth underneath, is being looted. The river is being made hollow by unscrupulous sand miners. These demons eye quick bucks, without wanting to realize what damage they are doing to the ecology in the long run. Kavarady gram panchayat has been extending support to the illegal sand miners who have been digging out around 150 to 300 truck-loads of sand everyday. Surprisingly, the person who collects sand transportation fee from miners, himself conducts sand mining at this spot! To that extent, it can safely be said that here that the fence is grazing the crop instead of protecting it.
Although so much illegal sand mining is being carried out in the taluk, people of the taluk who are engaged in construction activity are faced with acute shortage of sand. Truckloads of sand fan out of Kandlur since early hours every day to Sagar, Nagara, Shivamogga etc but people have been claiming that locals are deprived of sand for their genuine requirement.
Non-enforcement of legal action: Squads meant to stop illegal sand mining have been formed at district and taluk levels. There are committees at the taluk level headed by tahsildar, with more committees at the revenue division level. Committees with representatives from revenue, police, and local gram panchayat representatives, are meant to monitor the situation. There are allegations that these committees have also been neck-deep in corruption.
The entire illegal sand mining operation at Kandlur has been going on illegally. If the rowdyism being noticed here is allowed to continue, this situation will spread all over the coast, and also adversely affect the functioning of the departments concerned. The people have already complained to the district deputy commissioner about illegal mining. They have indicated their preparedness to undertake stronger means of protest if the officials remain mute spectators to the open loot. People are interested to know whether the departments will act at least now, and just continue to be puppets in the hands of ministers.
On the basis of complaints from people and media reports, a joint operation was conducted by the officials of the department of mines and geology and police at Kandlur on Tuesday January 12. The team of officials from geology department was led by Mahadevappa. During the raid, a tipper and a mini lorry were confiscated. The vehicles were brought to the premises of the police station here.
Deputy superintendent of police here, Manjunath Shetty, and police circle inspector, Diwakar, were present during the raid. With the intervention of police and geology department officials, there is temporary lull in illegal sand mining activity in the area.