Bankura undertakes series of measures to stop illegal sand mining

Kolkata: Bankura district administration has taken a slew of measures to stop lifting of sand from illegal mines.

It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee while addressing the administrative review meetings held in the district last week had asked the administration to take stringent measures against the sand mafia.

Subsequently, in the administrative review meeting held in West Midnapore held on Tuesday, she asked the district magistrates to take steps ensuring that heavy duty lorries carrying sand do not enter rural roads as they often damage the roads.

She has asked Director General of Police Virendra to look after the matter seriously and instructed the Panchayat members to put up bamboo barriers on rural roads to stop this malpractice.

Following her instruction, the administration of eight south Bengal districts took a series of steps to stop illegal sand mining. Bankura district administration has launched an app to help detect lorries carrying sand from illegal mines and ferrying them. The app will give total information about the lorry carrying it. It will display details about the documents of the vehicle like driving licence, smart card and other relevant documents. They will also share details of the chalans showing the quantity of sand that has

been loaded.

It will monitor the journey of the lorries and the policemen manning the check posts will have all the information of the vehicles. The moment they get to know that a lorry is over loaded, it will not be allowed to ply. It may be mentioned that Banerjee has instructed the district administration to slap heavy fines on the owner of the lorry so that the driver does not commit the same

mistake twice.

Three check posts have been set up along with CCTV cameras being installed. The cameras will help the administration to find out whether the lorries loaded with sand

are genuine.

Koteshwar Rao, superintendent of police, said crack down on trucks carrying sand from illegal mines is on and hoped lifting sand from illegal mines will be a matter of past.

It may be mentioned that the sand mafia are very strong in some districts and a civic volunteer was beaten up in Purulia on Wednesday. Clashes between two groups of criminals engaged in illegal mining is quite frequent. The measures taken by the district will stop illegal sand mining as the state government does not get revenue from these sand pits while the mafia make crores

of rupees.