Badasahi: Amid allegations of rampant sand mining in the riverbed of Budhabalanga under Badasahi block in Mayurbhanj district, the administration has allegedly failed to take action against the leaseholders and some sand mafia.
Some leaseholders are resorting to excessive sand mining and transport truckloads of sand day and night by misusing their transit passes, a report said.
“With increasing sand loot, the riverbed has turned into a safe haven for the sand mafia. Due to rampant sand mining, the state government has been losing crores of rupees towards revenue,” locals alleged
Some leaseholder have deposited money at the tehsil office for lifting sand at Mahupura, Belapal, Dingira, Arpata, Sakua and Patapur ghats.
The leaseholders have engaged excavators at Sakua ghat on a daily basis. As per norms, use of machines in sand mining has been stopped, but sand mafia continues to violate the norms, they added.
Leaseholders were accused of resorting to another illegal means to carry out excessive mining. The transit passes provided by the tehsil authorities are allegedly being misused.
A single transit pass is tampered and used multiple times to get passage of truckloads of sand from the river, villagers said.
However, the tehsil authorities do not pay heed to the misuse of transit passes, which have been instrumental for leaseholders to do excessive sand mining.
Worse, sand mining has caused banks to erode every year, posing danger to riparian villages. Transit passes issued by tehsil authorities are being misused by sand transporters while leaseholders in some cases do excess mining and allegedly browbeat villagers who oppose them.
Aggrieved villagers alleged that the ongoing illegal and excessive sand mining is the fallout of an unholy nexus between the sand mafia and the teshil officials.
In the past, locals and leaseholders had fights in the past while cases have landed in police stations. Transit passes are being tampered with by sand miners and being used again and again.
Excessive sand mining has led to erosion of banks while acres of land on the banks have vanished over the years, villagers said.
Though villagers have taken up the issue with the tehsil administration in the past, no steps are being taken to stop it, the villagers rued.
Congress leader Sashank Sekhar Kar warned of an agitation if the revenue and police officials fail to take action against the sand looters.
Tehsildar Pruthiraj Parida said use of machines in sand mining will be halted and action will be taken against the leaseholders.