Joda: Police seized a truck for transporting illegally excavated manganese at Nayagad under Bamebari police limits in Keonjhar Wednesday. The driver of the truck was arrested. Interestingly, the illegal manganese was covered with a layer of iron pellets.
IIC Pratibha Manjari Sahu said that OIC Paresh Kumar Mohanty had got a tipoff about the truck from a reliable source.
At 10 am, a team of police rushed to a forest near Jagadamba crusher at Nayagad. Two youths –RD Mohant and Sambhu Munda – saw the patrol party and fled the scene.
Illegal manganese and pellets were being loaded onto the truck there. Police seized it and arrested driver Paresh Hembram.
Police during the preliminary investigation came to know that the manganese and pellets were loaded on the truck of Narayan Tiria and was to be sold to MD Mujafar of Arshal village and Rama Maharana of Kalimati area.
Nearly 10 tonnes of iron pellets and 25 tonnes of A grade manganese were seized.
A case has been registered in this regard.
The state mines department and the state government have resorted to various measures to check illegal mining and transport of minerals. Despite this, such illegal activities have been on the rise in the area, exposing lax steps of the mining department, locals alleged.
The result is that the state government has been losing crores of rupees as revenue.