Kodangal: Illegal sand mining goes unabated in Bomraspet

Kodangal: Even while the State government has brought in new system to ensure that people who wish to construct a home should get sand without facing the any official hassles through online booking system, here in Bomraspet mandal of Kodangal constituency in Vikarabad, the sand mafia is carrying out its business giving scant regard to government's sand regulation system and openly violating WALTA Act and going ahead with sand mining from Seema Vaagu flowing through Burri Thanda, Botloni Thanda and Manddimadugu Thanda in the said mandal.

Usually, the Seema Vaagu is a dry rivulet with a BJP stages dharna seeking fair compensation to Kudi killa farmers rocky bed. However, in the past few days with heavy  rains lashing the region, large dunes of sand have been deposited on the bed.As this region is not under the scanner of the revenue officials, there is no supervision of this area by the concerned authorities. Taking this as an opportunity, the sand mafia with the support of local leaders and a few people in the Tahsildar's office, is openly digging the sand from the rivulet during day and transporting it using tractors and dumping the same in the secluded places away from the eyes of general public.

In the nights, the sand smugglers are filling truck loads of sand and transporting the same to Hyderabad and making quick bucks by causing huge loss to the government exchequer. "Recently the heavy flow of water in Seema Vaagu has brought with it the large deposits of sand. Taking this as an advantage, the sand mafia who identified it as an opportunity to mint the money has been openly digging the sand from the rivulet falling under Burri Thanda, Botloni Thanda and Maddimadugu Thandas in Bomraspet mandal. As the sand mafia is having full support of local leaders and officials, no one dares to question them and that is why they are openly filling up tractors and stocking at some secret place. A few are also resorting to artificially manufacturing the sand by washing the mud collected from the open government lands and later on earning big money by selling it to locals for Rs 4,000 per tractor load," said a resident of Bomraspet.

However, a few residents of Thandas who are fed up with the movement of sand vehicles in their hamlets, have complained to the local police. The police teams acted against a few tractor owners and sized two tractors and registered cases against them. The villagers said that the seized tractor owners were only pawns in the hands of big sharks and they demanded a thorough investigation to find the real culprits and end the sand mafia. The Bomraspet police have asured of thorough investigation in this regard.