BHUBANESWAR: In order to curb illegal mining and transportation of minor minerals, the State Government has decided to deploy a dedicated squad of armed police forces in the areas where it is rampant.The auxiliary police force (APR) will be deployed in 10 tehsils of five districts. The tehsils where the forces will stay guard included Jaleswar, Dharmasala, Chilika, Khurda, Tangi and Jatani.
The decision came in the wake of frequent attacks on Tehsildars and revenue officials in the past by mining mafias during their raids on sairat sources to curb theft of minor minerals.A senior revenue official said the Revenue and Disaster Management department has urged DGP Dr RP Sharma for deployment of APR force as dedicated squad to guard sairat sources in 10 sensitive tehsils by December 15. “Attacks on revenue officials are happening in most of the cases due to absence or inadequate presence of police force. It not only causes loss of revenue, but also affects the morale of officials working on the field. The deployment of armed police will help checking illegal mining of minerals,” said the official.
The State has 4,464 sairat sources. While environment clearance was granted to 1,690 following approval of district environment impact assessment authority, 1,486 are operating. The State has collected royalty worth Rs 77.4 crore from the sairat sources in 2017-18.
Revenue Secretary CS Kumar has also directed district officers to ensure installation of CCTV cameras and biometric devices in all tehsils by end of this week. Of 317 tehsils in the State, CCTV cameras have already been installed in 307 tehsils and biometric devices in 221 tehsils so far. Instructions have been issued to install CCTV cameras in all sub-registrar offices and documentation of all offices of revenue inspectors and tehsils within a fortnight.
The branch officers have been asked to dispose of mutation cases as early as possible through the new software developed by the National Informatics Centre.Meanwhile, a proposal has been mooted for a common Revenue Code by incorporating all Acts for smooth handling of revenue cases. The proposal is under active consideration of the government.