Jodhpur: Ahead of assembly election, Jodhpur police have tightened its noose around the mining and transportation of gravel ( bajri ).In past one week, police have seized 18 vehicles, including three excavators and arrested 17 persons from different areas. All these breakthroughs have been obtained by the police at the sites of mining while loading the vehicles with the gravel and during the patrolling. SP (Jodhpur Rural) Rajan Dushyant said that the directions have been issued to the police to keep watch on all the sites of excavation and transportation of the gravel. “We have sensitized our entire network to keep a close watch on the mining and transportation of gravel in the district. All the concerned police stations have been asked to keep an effective check on this trade,” said Dushyant.While the rural police have launched a drive against the gravel mining and transportation, commissionerate police yet to swing into action as the gravel continues to make into the city in routine. Sight of piles of gravel is quite normal across the city. Barring a sporadic actions, this negligence is being exercised despite the fact that these gravel laden vehicles have killed three youths in past couple of months and have given a run to the police a number of times.The connivance of the mafia and police could be simply ascertained by the fact that at some places, the gravel is being unloaded and stored in close proximity of the police chowkies and police stations.It may be recalled that the gravel mining and its transportation had been banned by the court in November last year but in spite of that the gravel mafia has prospered tremendously shooting up the price of gravel exponentially. But the state government and its agencies have miserably failed in ensuring the compliance of the court’s order. Sometime back Ashok Gehlot himself had said that the gravel mafia has flourished in the state and people were not able to build their houses because of the spurt in the prices of gravel 5-6 times.Post ban, many have entered into the gravel mining and transportation in order to make a quick buck. Fearless, they are a moving menace on the roads with hardly having registration numbers visible or mentioned. On being chased by the police, if it happens, they simply begin unloading while moving to give the police, the slip.

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