`3.05cr fine for illegal sand miners

MINING MENACE 81 illegal sand mining sites in the city raided by Panvel tehsildar officials in 2015-16

NAVI MUMBAI: Even as the city police and the tehshildar officials claim to take every possible to steps to stop illegal sand mining in Navi Mumbai, several groups are still continuing with such operations along the creeks.

The statistics revealed by the Panvel tehshildar officials on Thursday are self-evident. In 2015-16 financial year they raided as many as 81 such illegal sand mining sites in the city and arrested 28 people.

They collected a total of Rs3.05 crore as fine from the violators during this tenure.

Apart from that, vehicles, suction machines and other equipments worth around Rs 4 crores were also seized from the sand mining sites, a senior officer said. In the latest incident, they seized two trucks loaded with sand coming from an illegal mining site in New Panvel and levied fine of Rs14,800 last week.

“As soon as we learn about illegal mining at nay part of the city, out teams raid that place and size all the goods they find on the spot. We immediately file a first information reports (FIR) with the local police and impose a fine on the culprits depending on the scale of violations. In the past financial year our collection of fine from the violators was 100%,” said Panvel tehshildar, Deepak Akade.

According to Akade, Kharghar, New Panvel, Ulwe, Ganeshpada and certain areas of Uran are worst affected when it comes to illegal sand mining.

“The culprits increase their operations between December and March every year as they find the weather suitable for their purpose. Several gangs also operate at night taking advantage of darkness,” another official said. “The main culprits, who deploy labourers for dredging sand, are mostly outsiders and they never come to the spot. Normally they hire labourers who do not have much idea about the city,” he said.

Migrated Bangladeshis seem to be their first preference as they are ready to work for lower wages compared to the Indian labourers, he added.