Mafia excavates sand from river beds, 20 boats seized

  • | Friday | 15th February, 2019

“The small boats put the sand on big boats which transport it to the shore where trucks ferry sand to other areas,” Sharma informed TOI.The mining mafia managed to excavate over 6,000 tonne of sand using boats in Dungarpur alone. “The boats were carrying out drilling into the river bed for past many days. “The new strategy was adopted because transportation through highway have become very difficult for the mining mafia, “ Sharma said.The police said that each boat had equipment worth over Rs 15 lakhs. JAIPUR: Illegal mining mafia in the state is now excavating the sand (bajri) from 100-feet deep river beds using boats with dredging machines to dodge police.The new Modus operandi includes floating ‘mother ships,” with a capacity to ferry 10 tonne of illegal sand, and small electric motor mounted boats to suck the sand from the river bed using special pipes.“We have seized total 20 boats during a raid at Som Kamla Amba Dam near Dungarpur. They excavate the sand from the river bed by lowering the pipes to severe feet deep, drilling the river and finally suck out the sand through pipes,” said Dungarpur SP, Shankar Dutt Sharma.Sharma told TOI that a special police had learnt about the mining mafia using dredging to smuggle the sand.

JAIPUR: Illegal mining mafia in the state is now excavating the sand (bajri) from 100-feet deep river beds using boats with dredging machines to dodge police.The new Modus operandi includes floating ‘mother ships,” with a capacity to ferry 10 tonne of illegal sand, and small electric motor mounted boats to suck the sand from the river bed using special pipes.“We have seized total 20 boats during a raid at Som Kamla Amba Dam near Dungarpur. These boats have big thick pipes attached to an electric motor. They excavate the sand from the river bed by lowering the pipes to severe feet deep, drilling the river and finally suck out the sand through pipes,” said Dungarpur SP, Shankar Dutt Sharma.Sharma told TOI that a special police had learnt about the mining mafia using dredging to smuggle the sand. “The small boats put the sand on big boats which transport it to the shore where trucks ferry sand to other areas,” Sharma informed TOI.The mining mafia managed to excavate over 6,000 tonne of sand using boats in Dungarpur alone. IG Udaipur Range, Prafulla Kumar informed TOI that the police sought the help of State Disaster Relief Force (SDRF) to act on the accused.Interestingly, the mining department said to have been unaware of the rampant excavation from river bed until the police clamped down on the mafia. “The new strategy was adopted because transportation through highway have become very difficult for the mining mafia, “ Sharma said.The police said that each boat had equipment worth over Rs 15 lakhs. “The boats were carrying out drilling into the river bed for past many days. The sand sucked out of river was poured into empty drums and later kept under the sun to dry up, the trucks would ferry them to far flung places,” said an official.

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