Jaleswar: After a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, Bengal mafia’s illegal sand mining in river Subarnarekha under Jaleswar block in Balasore district has stopped in some pockets. But the mafia has adopted a new way to loot sand from other riparian pockets.
Using forged transit passes (TPs), the mafia has been carting away sand from Panchughanta, Mohammednagar Patana, Sheikhsarai, Benapura and Kantapal.
It is alleged that the Bengal mafia manages to carry out such illegal mining with the help of local lease holders of sand quarries.
Earlier, the Bengal mafia used to plunder sand with impunity from the riverbed at Bilashpur, Rajnagar, Makidia, Kuanrpur, Dakhina Praharajpur, Beherasahi, and Makarampur. But it stopped later due to repeated crackdown by the local administration.
Local lease holders have laid roads through farmlands into the river in areas such as Panchughanta, Mohammednagar Patana, Sheikhsarai, Benapura and Kantapal.
This has made the job easy for the mafia. Hundreds of trucks and tractors carry sand day and night from these areas to West Bengal every day. As a result, the state government is losing crores of revenue every year.
Sand is being dumped on Old OT Road near Laxmannath toll gate border. Pits as deep as 30 to 40 ft have been dug inside the river, posing risk to the lives of people and domestic animals, locals alleged.
People in riparian villages fear that rampant sand mining will cause the river to change its course in the monsoon if illegal sand mining is allowed to continue.
Local people, social activists and members of Jaleswar Nagarika Manch have demanded immediate halt t to sand mining in the river.
PNN