Home min 'raids' sand ghats, warns officials of action

Nagpur: In a first of it’s kind effort, state home minister Anil Deshmukh and guardian minister Nitin Raut conducted surprise checks at sand ghats, seized vehicles, and also visited police stations in the district on Tuesday along with senior officials of revenue, police and other departments. The home minister has issued instruction to use drones to monitor illegal excavation and transportation of sand.

Deshmukh, who was with divisional commissioner Sanjeev Kumar and collector Ravindra Thakare, has also issued warning of strict action against officials failing to initiate a crackdown on sand mafia in the district. He also instructed them to stop permit holders of Madhya Pradesh from excavating sand in the district. Nagpur range IG KM Mallikarjuna Prasanna and SP Rakesh Ola too were present during the surprise checks.

The combined team, led by the home minister, covered almost 160-170 km across the district during the action sending a strong message to the dreaded sand mafia cartels, which have attacked police and revenue officials in the past. MLAs Ashish Jaiswal and Raju Parve too were part of the action team.

Deshmukh and Raut had jointly planned the surprise checks following a meeting at the divisional commissioner’s office. The combined team first headed to Saoner police station. After a review, the team headed to Khapa, where they went to the riverside for a check.

Apart from sand dumps and huge hollows on the river side, the team also spotted half-a-dozen trucks, tractors and a JCB machine, which were immediately seized. The team then headed to Mouda police station. Later, they also toured Ramtek, Kamptee and Umrer and conducted checks at different places and police stations.

Deshmukh, talking to TOI regarding his raid, said instructions for combined action by multiple agencies, like revenue, police, RTO, forest and environment, has been issued by him. “We have also decided to stop vehicles of permit (royalty) holders from Madhya Pradesh, who come inside Maharashtra for excavation. Passes and royalties issued in Madhya Pradesh will no longer be valid in Maharashtra,” he said.

Deshmukh also said he will spare no one if any complaint is received about action not being taken against illegal sand mining.

Sources said he also instructed Bhandara collector and SP to ensure trucks from MP are stopped at the border.

Deshmukh had convened a meeting on the sand mafia and illegal excavations around a fortnight ago. He had also issued instructions to conduct raids and take actions. During a review it came to fore no concrete action had been initiated, leading to the action by the home minister himself.