MANGALURU: The Bantwal Police on Wednesday stopped a goods train that had six wagons load of sand, exposing the illegal utilisation of railway wagons and also inter-district nexus in sand smuggling.
On a tip-off from officials of the Department of Mines and Geology, the Bantwal police held up a Bengaluru-bound goods train that had a rake of 31 wagons, of which six were filled with sand.
The Railways had agreed to take the sand as it was booked by a person who said he was a contractor assigned to take up railway work at Sakaleshpur, but it was being taken to Bengaluru.
After transportation of sand between districts was banned, smugglers have been using the cover of night to transport sand from coastal areas to Bengaluru and Mysuru. A sand miner who is now without any blocks, told Express that the government has delayed sand permits by over 70 days between February and April, to facilitate the illegal sand trade from Dakshina Kannada to Mysuru and Bengaluru, where powerful political lobbies work hand in glove with the real estate lobbies.
According to the officials of the Mines and Geology Department, the price of three units of sand is Rs 12,000 in Dakshina Kannada, but it costs over Rs 70,000 in Mysuru and Bengaluru.
Sand contractor Purushottam, who has been running around to get a legal sand mining permit, said the powerful politicians of the district had closed all the doors for local sand miners, and opened it up to illegal sand miners, to favour the big bosses in their parties.
An investigation by the Department of Mines had revealed that sand was being smuggled into Kerala in cement mixer trucks.