Hatadihi: Even as day temperature has been on the rise, scores of illegal brick kilns operating in Samana and Habaleswar panchayats under Hatadihi block in Keonjhar district have spurred illegal sand mining from riverbeds. The result is the state government is losing crores of rupees towards revenue.
The mafia has encroached upon government and pastureland and set up brick kilns without sanction of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board.
Locals were upset with the mushrooming growth of brick kilns almost everywhere – by road sides, near schools and near villages. Brick kilns contribute to warming up the atmosphere in summer, locals said. Such illegal brick kilns consume a huge quantity of sand. Truckloads of sand are illegally excavated from riverbeds and supplied to the brick kilns.
The illegal sand mining that feeds the brick kilns has caused huge revenue loss to the state exchequer, the locals said. People in these areas were upset over the rising air pollution. Various outfits have demanded necessary steps towards curbing both illegal brick making and sand mining.
