Collector takes on sand mafia

Yavatmal: District collector Rahul Ranjan Mahiwal conducted surprise raids at illegal sand mining sites across the district in the past fortnight.
Mahiwal personally conducted a raid in Hiwra Darne village of Kalamb tehsil, about 30 kms from here on Monday and seized 12 trucks and three JCB machines engaged in the mining of sand from the Shirpur river bed.The collector, accompanied by his probationary officer Deepkumar Meena rushed to the mining spot and caught the mafias red handed. After due panchnama, a fine of Rs5 lakh was imposed on them.
According to Mahiwal, he had been receiving a number of complaints from the public about the large scale mining of sand from the river beds across the district.
“I have earlier raided the illegal mining of sand site in Babhulgaon tehsil and the tehsildar was ordered to take action against the culprits,” Mahiwal added.
Accordingly, the tehsildar has imposed a fine of Rs2.5 lakh on the sand mafia and seized a few trucks and one JCB from the site.
TOI found there was a strong nexus between the revenue officials and the sand mafias in the district and with the connivance of the officers, the illegal sand mining and transportation was being done and they shared the booty.