SRIKAKULAM: Sand mafia attacked a team of revenue officials on early Tuesday at Naira village of Srikakulam rural mandal. Two persons were injured in the attack, while four others escaped.
The injured have been identified as Mosip Bandar VRO P Chandrasekhar and Voppangi VRO BVR Visweswara Rao, both from Srikakulam rural mandal.
Although there were no authorised sand reaches in the district presently, sand transportation has been continuing from several parts of the district. It has been noticed that the mafia has been excavating sand from the Nagavali, the Vamsadhara, the Mahendratanaya and the Bah uda rivers, particularly during the night.
Taking the issue of illegal transportation of sand seriously, District Collector J Nivas deployed revenue officials, mostly VROs and VRAs, to arrest people related to illegal mining activity. Coming to know of the illegal transportation of sand from Naira village, a team comprising VROs P Chandrasekhar, BVR Visweswara Rao, Menda Chandra Bhushan Rao, Marella Appala Naidu and VRA Rella Sreeramulu rushed to the spot. About 30 workers attacked the officials at around 1 am when they stopped a sand-laden lorry from the Vamsadhara river.
Thereupon, Srikakulam tahasildar K Venu Gopala Rao, deputy tahasildar Satish and Srikakulam rural police station SI M Chinnamnaidu rushed to the spot. The victims were shifted to the hospital, while the truck was seized by the officials.
District Collector J Nivas and Joint Collector KVN Chakradhara Babu met the injured VROs at Srikakulam Government General Hospital (GGH) in the morning. Nivas also directed Srikakulam DSP A Sreenivas Chakravarthi to book cases against the attackers under rigorous sections.
Speaking to mediapersons after meeting the victims, the Collector said they would not spare the people involved in the attack. He also said police protection would be provided to the teams henceforth, while conducting raids on sand mining. Illegal transportation of sand has been continuing from various places in a big way.