MARGAO
Cracking the whip against illegal sand mining, the High Court-constituted team of officials raided three places at Salcete on late Thursday night and has seized sand stacked in a property at Guirdolim.
Five workers, who were sitting on the bank of river Zuari near the Borim bridge were also detained by the team and handed over to the Maina Curtorim police for further action.
The team headed by Kedar Naik swooped down at Guirdolim late Thursday night and found around 500 cubic meters of sand stacked in a property, around two kms away from the river point.
Salcete Mamlatdar Prataprao Gaonkar informed that the team descended on Guirdolim near the spot where the sand was stacked by tracking down the sand marks from the banks of the river. “When the team descended on Guirdolim near the river point, there was no activity noticed in the area. However, we kept a track of the sand marks before we found sand stacked in a property”, he said, adding that the police has been told to register an offence against the owner.
The representative of the Mines Department has been told to unload the sand back in the river, he added.
The team also descended on the banks of River Zuari near the Borim bridge and came across five labourers sitting at the site. “We suspected that these labourers were waiting for the sand laden canoes to come to the spot. The five persons were detained by the team and handed over to Maina Curtorim police for further inquiry and record their statements”, Gaonkar added.
The raid was conducted by the team headed by Kedar Naik, Salcete Mamlatdar Prataprao Gaonkar, the Joint Mamlatdars, officials of the Mines Department, police and other departments.
