CM Singh intervenes to stop illegal extraction of sand and aggregates in Kamala river

Mahendranagar (Dhanusha), Feb 6: Chief Minister of Madhesh Province, Satish Kumar Singh, has conducted a raid at Portaha area of Ganeshman Charnath Municipality-7 in Dhanusha district, acting on a tip-off that the river-based materials as sand and aggregates were being illegally extracted from the Kamala rivulet and smuggled out.     

Chief Minister Singh said the provincial government has conducted a raid against the illegal extraction of the river based materials as their unauthorized and rampant exploitation will have adverse impact on the ecosystem and the biodiversity, increasing the desertification of the fertile land in the Madhes province. He added that the government was also losing revenue from such activities.     

A team comprising the Chief Minister and the security officials of the district raided the area from 12 midnight till 3 am today after receiving information that stones, pebbles and sand were being illegally mined from rivulets in the national forests and community forests, and the river-based materials were being exploited in unauthorized manner in other places.     

Spokesperson of the District Police Office, Deputy Superintendent of Police Barun Singh, led the raid. He said 13 tractors transporting river-based aggregates, two buckets and five drivers have been taken under control in course of the raid.     

Police spokesperson Singh said that the scavators, tractors and bucket and people involved in the illegal mining of stones, aggregates and sand escaped using the clandestine routes taking advantage of the darkness of the night when the team with the Chief Minister reached the rivulet inside the forest areas towards the north of the East-West highway.     

According to the police spokesperson Singh, the tractors, buckets and their drivers on their way south from the illegal extraction sites were apprehended.     

Chief Minister Singh said that monitoring has been intensified against the illegal mining and rampant exploitation of natural resources as this has increased the risk of disasters and loss of revenue to the State.(RSS)