Naugaon: Taking advantage of ongoing impasse between the local tehsil office and police, sand mafias have become active and are carrying out illegal mining rampantly in Naugaon area of Jagatsinghpur district, a source said Friday.
Allegedly, the sand mafia groups are minting money while the Odisha government is losing revenue worth crores of rupees. A total of six sand quarries were earlier auctioned alongside Debi River under Naugaon tehsil limits. They are Sikhara, Bachhalo, Palandi, Arakhakuda, Galadari and Ereda.
However, the Nuagaon tehsil office has not given permission for quarrying so far, despite completion of the auction. Bidders are yet to submit the requisite documents with the tehsildar, a source said.
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Meanwhile, as the tehsil office has not yet decided on the jurisdiction of the areas where quarrying can be carried out, the bidders are suffering. One can however, regularly see several sand-laden trucks, Hyvas and tractors going outside the district.
Tehsil officials said that members of the sand mafia regularly threaten them when they conduct raids. It happens because the local police do not cooperate with the tehsil officials when raids are conducted and action is initiated against illegal quarrying, informed Naugaon tehsildar J Kalpana.
She informed several letters (No-101, 1131 and 1134) have been written to the Naugaon police in this regard. Photo copies of the letters have also been forwarded to Jagatsinghpur SP and the district collector, the tehsildar informed.
Naugaon IIC Abhay Kumar Behera however, refuted the allegations. He said that the police have not received any official correspondence on the issue. He pointed out that only a tehsil office clerk is always sent to conduct raids, although it is the responsibility of tehsildar and additional tehsildar.
PNN
