Kalinganagar: A huge amount of murram has been lifted illegally from Baliapal forest land under Danagadi tehsil in Jajpur district due to alleged apathy of the Revenue and Forest department. This has caused a huge loss of revenue to the government coffers, a report said.
It is said that murram is being looted in Danagadi area for a long time at the instruction of an influential person who is a trader.
According to reports, a construction agency engaged in the expansion work of an NH in the area has been permitted to lift 70,000 cubic metre of murram from a hill in Baghuapal. The murram will be used in road construction.
However, it was alleged that the agency apart from using the murram for NH work, is also selling the mineral to others, which is illegal. Interestingly, dumpers transporting murram had ‘NHAI stickers’ pasted on the front just to give the impression that murram is used for NH work only.
“This is how the mineral mafia is hoodwinking the law. Some unscrupulous staff of the tehsil, revenue inspectors and police are protecting such illegal activities,” locals alleged. An influential trader of Danagadi area is behind such illegal murram plundering in the locality, they said.
It was learnt that this murram is being used to level a plot of land owned by this trader near the Biju Pattnaik Marg.
In fact, people have taken help of the person on a number of occasions to procure murram. The person is operating without fear as he has close connections with some top officials of the construction company.
This illegal activity caught the attention of the lawmakers Thursday when five Tata Hyvas, engaged to carry murram from Baliapal forest, got stuck on the way due to rains.
Danagadi tehsildar Namrata Modi has started investigating the matter. She visited the plots where the murram has been dumped.
A local RI has been asked to report about the owners of the plots and categories of the land. The land owners will be notified soon, it was learnt.
PNN