Jaleswar: Taking full advantage of a lax administration, sand smugglers from across the border in West Bengal are looting sand from the Subarnarekha in Makidia panchayat of Balasore district, with locals condemning the state government for doing little apart from voicing feeble protests.
Locals have warned of staging mass agitations after becoming frustrated over the government’s lack of action in clamping down upon the illegal activity.
Residents of riparian villages in the panchayat addressed a memorandum to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and revenue minister Maheswar Mohanty Wednesday, seeking immediate action against the illegal sand lifting.
In their memorandum, they warned, “People will start a sit-in mass protest and hunger strike in front of Jaleswar tehsil office from June 12 if the government does not take immediate measures to arrive at a permanent solution to the illegal sand lifting.”
Those now leading the campaign against illegal sand lifting are Makidia sarpanch Balaram Barsal, former sarpanch Chandan Kumar Sahu, ward member Jamuna Adhikary, former block chairperson Radhakant Ghose and former samiti member Pratibharani Ghose.
The locals apprehend that over 1,200 houses in Makidia and Kuanrpur will be submerged in the river if the illegal sand lifting is allowed to continue unabated. The river will quickly change its course further into fringe areas, they added.
Makidia panchayat is one of the fringe areas on the eastern borders of West Bengal. The Subarnarekha acts as a boundary between the two states. Over the years, the river has changed its course and eroded into Orissa’s side.
In the last quarter century, the river has eroded up to a distance of 1km into Orissa. The boundary of Orissa lies 1km inside the river. As the sand of Subarnarekha is of high quality, it enjoys high demand in Haldia, Kolkata and even other parts of the neighbouring state.
The Bengal mafia has engaged swamp pump sets with which they have been lifting sand from a depth of 30/40 ft of the riverbed. Every year, the volume of sand mining is increasing. More and more swamp pump sets are being used to lift sand, locals alleged.
Now, 32 swamp pumps are deployed for sand mining in their area, they pointed out. They also stated that these swamp pumps are so powerful that tremors are felt across the nearby villages when they are operated to suck out sand from the depths of the river.
Due to the impact of the pump sets, several buildings and houses have developed cracks. In December 2016, walls of Biseswar Nodal School and some other buildings had developed cracks and some even sank into the ground.
The villagers stated that while the water resources department is strengthening the river embankment, the sand mining by the WB mafia is worsening the problem.
They stated that the Jaleswar MLA had repeatedly apprised the collector of the illegal sand lifting, but to no avail. They demanded a permanent solution to the ongoing problem.
The villagers forwarded copies of the memorandum to RDC (Central), Balasore MP, district collector, SP, Jaleswar MLA and the tehsildar. PNN