Dharmasala: The Dhenkanal police and administration have seized as many as 29 granite-laden trucks at Chadakmara-Dankari hill near the border of Jajpur district during a search operation of illegal granite mining and transport.
Dharmasala tehsildar Saroj Kumar Panda was concerned over the matter after a report in this regard appeared in Orissa Post. The department will get more than Rs 5 lakh as penalty from those 29 trucks, he said.
Police sources said the trucks were seized at Chadheidhara, Jenapur, Mandia and Barada roads of National Highway-53. As per the police records, this is the highest number of trucks seized so far for carrying illegal granite.
Saroj Panda, additional tehsildar Debi Prasad Mohanty, police inspector in-charge Susant Dash, RI Biranchit Boiteai, ARI Chandan Sahoo, and Jagabandhu Jena were involved in the operation. Meanwhile, police collected Rs. 1,70,000 from the four heavy vehicles Sunday and Monday.
Sources said, of the 92 quarries in Dharmasala, only 46 were auctioned and the granite mafia is illegally transporting the stone from non-auctioned quarries.
PNN