Action against sand mafia intensified

Officials seize 427 sand dumps following the raids

Karimnagar: After the Nerella incident, officials have intensified action against hundreds of trucks with overloads of sand. They are focusing attention on illegal sand transportation and overload of vehicles. They have seized 427 sand dumps following raids earning about Rs. one crore to the State exchequer.

Investigation by The Hans India revealed that leaders of the ruling party are upset about the action of the officials. The investigation found that not only sand, but trucks overloaded with granite were also plying. While sand lorries have been found leaving the government sand reaches without bills, some were found with overloads in the limits of Karimnagar RTA following a special drive taken up by the officials.

The drive resulted in seizure of over 100 trucks for various violations, many of them with sand. The investigation revealed that sand was being transported in thousands of lorries to various parts of the State from the Manair area, including areas in Hyderabad. This sand was also being used for projects taken up by the government. Illegal sand traders are taking advantage of this in moving to areas to meet the heavy demand.

They are not even sparing the government sand reaches. Following the Nerella incident, the RTA and the Revenue officials have intensified raids on illegal sand transport in Elugandula and Gudem villages in the Karimnagar rural area of Manair. Among the 427 lorries seized, 106 are for overloading and illegal transport. The officials are also continuing special raids in Jagtial and Sircilla districts. They have registered cases against four lorries for transporting sand without relevant documents.

The officials have also found large-scale sand transportation in Timmapur mandal of Karimnagar district as per the cases registered against 400 tractors and 50 lorries. There are many sand dumps in the Timmapur area. Recently, the Jagtial Superintendent of Police himself joined in the raids. The police seized some vehicles that were illegally transporting sand on the outskirts of Jagtial, along with some dumps illegally storing sand.

Following the raids in many areas of Karimnagar district, the sand mafia has become livid. Its representatives are allegedly resorting to issuing of threats to those officials who had cooperated with the mafia in the past but have become active with raids. The mafia is said to be planning attacks on officials for stopping its vehicles at the field level. Already some officials have given information on this to the police.

However, the officials are boldly continuing the raids by forming task force teams without giving in to threats. Even as the mafia was holding out threats, the officials are giving counters with warning of registering cases under the Preventive Detention Act. Besides the existing task force, the Transport department has formed another task force. The officials are getting ready to register cases under the PD Act, along with the police, against those who have been caught earlier.

They have already registered cases under Section 379 of IPC against some for illegal transportation of sand. The police have announced that cases under the Preventive Detention Act would be registered against those if they repeated the offence. This has resulted in good results following raids during the last one week. The government has earned a revenue of Rs.1 crore after selling the sand seized by the Mines department.

Rajender Rao, Karimnagar Rural-1 MRO told The Hans India that the raids were being conducted following orders issued by the State government. He said during the raids conducted in the last four days large-scale illegal sand dumps have been seized.

The raids would continue. The MRO admitted that his staff has been receiving threatening telephone calls from the sand mafia. “We are disregarding the threats and continue our work,” he added. Karimnagar Rural ACP Tirupati said that cases were being booked against those involved in illegal sand transport. Already, cases under Section 379 of the IPC have been registered against some.