CUTTACK: Cracking down on illegal sand transportation by mafias, Cuttack district administration on Friday night seized as many as 59 wagon-loads of sand from goods train of East Cost Railway (ECoR) at Nirgundi station. The sands lifted from Balighat of Kathajodi river at CDA Sector-11 were being transported to Uttar Pradesh illegally without permission. Acting on a tip-off, Tangi-Choudwar Tehsildar Dr Abinash Rout conducted a raid at Nirgundi station and found loading of sand in 59 wagons at the goods yard. On being informed, Collector Nirmal Chandra Mishra and ADM (Revenue) Raghuram R Iyer also rushed to the spot and took stock of the situation.
While the transporters failed to produce the transit order for transportation of sand to outside the State, the administration seized all the 59 wagons having around 3,800 tonnes of sand. “The party showed transit pass having permission for transportation of sand from the source point to Nirgundi only. There was no permission to transport sand to outside State,” said the ADM. The seized sands, which have been handed over to Nirgundi Station Superintendent, will be auctioned as per the government guideline, he informed.
The revenue officials managed to corner Sanjay Prasanna of Begusarai in Bihar and his manager Akhay Kumar Sahoo of Bhubana in Dhenkanal, who were involved in the illegal transportation at the spot. Another Manjit Chawala, who is said to be the mastermind of the racket, is at large. Both Sanjay and Akhay were handed over to Cuttack GRP police.
On Saturday, Rout filed an FIR at Cuttack GRP police station. A show cause notice has also been served to Nirgundi station manager to file counter reply on which ground they had given permission for transportation of sand to other state, Rout informed.