Eight tractors seized, drivers held for illegal sand extraction

By Prabeen Kumar Sharma, Rautahat, March 19: Armed Police Force personnel have seized eight tractors along with their drivers for their alleged involvement in illegal sand extraction in Rautahat District.

The tractors were detained on Thursday morning from Rajpaida of Ward No. 5 and Motipur of Ward No. 8 in Chandrapur Municipality.

A team led by Deputy Superintendent of the Armed Police Force at Security Base Santapur, Bishwanath GC, seized the tractors and detained the drivers involved in the activity. The action was taken based on information that sand was being illegally extracted and loaded from the Chandi stream using tractors.

 Tractors that were being loaded or kept empty with a registration number (Na 5 Ta 9551), (Na 7 Ta 3917), (Province 2-03-001 Ta 467), (Na 6 Ta 3785), (Na 5 Ta 542), (Na 5 Ta 4712) and (Na 6 Ta 8844) along with their drivers respectively, Ramayan Patel, Bibek Paswan, Mayalal Majhi, Dipendra Majhi, Rahul Yadav, Karan Chaudhary, Devnath Chaudhary and Bhunta Majhi, according to Security Base Santapur.

The seized tractors and drivers were handed over to the municipal office for necessary action.

According to Revenue Section Officer Ganga Kumari Khadka, the municipality released them after imposing a fine of Rs. 1,000 per tractor.

The municipality has already awarded contracts for the extraction of river-based materials from Chandi stream and Bagmati River for the fiscal year 2082/83, but formal agreements are yet to be signed.

Officials said that the contractors have already deposited the required amount and agreements will be finalised soon.

The contract for Chandi stream has been awarded to MR Construction for Rs 14.98 million, while the contract for Bagmati River has been awarded to Skyline Construction for Rs. 16 million.