Mahbubnagar: Revenue, police hand-in-glove with sand mafia in Palamuru

Mahbubnagar: Rampant illegal sand mining across Palamuru region is going on unabated as some officials of revenue and police departments were hand in glove with sand mafia and turning blind eye to the illegal sand mining and unauthorized sand transportation.

Illegal sand mining from the rivulets of Addakula, Nawabpet, Devarkadra, Kothakota, Kollapur and some areas in Nagarkurnool and Mahbubnagar districts is going on in the guise of supplying sand for double bedroom houses and other government project works.

Apart from sand mining from rivers and rivulets, many people are doing illegal sand business by filtering sand from their own lands or from small water body channels without taking permission from mining department and reaping profits.

An anonymous source said that some sand contractors, who got sand dump contracts from the government to supply sand exclusively for double bedroom houses, were digging extra sand from the allocated sand dumps and selling it to private parties by taking extra bucks from them.

When The Hans India contacted a tipper driver, who was transporting sand from Kothakota to Jadcherla on a regular basis, revealed that for every trip he pays about Rs 1,500 extra to the sand quarry contractor and he also pays Rs 10,000 to the local police every month to let them carry on their business without any trouble.

Apart from this, he also pays Rs 20,000 to Rs 22,000 per tipper load of sand. Despite all this, he still earns a profit of Rs 8,000 to Rs 15,000 for each trip of sand he sells in black market.

A recent incident when about 15 Bharath Benz tippers were loaded with sand by a Hitachi at Shagapur rivulet near Kaduru village of Addakula mandal clearly shows how illegal sand business is going on.

When Diddi Praveen, a social worker from 'Nenu Saitam Foundation', asked Addakula Tahsildar Kishan the purpose for which sand was being transported, he told Praveen that the sand was for 'official purpose'.

Tahsildar neither explained 'official purpose' nor showed any government order for the same. Stating that this clearly explains that sand mafia and the officials are hand in glove and supporting illegal sand mining, Praveen said that they are demanding the district authorities and the State government to take cognizance of this and stop looting of valuable sand resources.

Taking a serious note of illegal sand mining in Mahbubnagar, District Collector S Venkat Rao recently conducted a review meeting with revenue, police and mining department authorities and instructed them to take up strict measures to stop illegal sand mining in the district.

Superintendent of Police Venkateshwarlu also instructed the police personnel to be on continuous vigil and book cases against illegal sand mafia.

The Collector directed Tahsildar of all mandals to allow sand transportation only for official purpose and all the details related to sand mining, timing of sand transportation and place of source and destination should be tracked. He also formed a taskforce team including revenue, police and mining department authorities to constantly monitor illegal sand mining in the district.