the goan I network
PANAJI
The safety of the mines department raiding team officers is at risk due to lack of cooperation from the police and Captain of Ports officers. Also, the raiding teams are facing the problem of storage of the seized sand, boats and vehicles used for illegal sand and another minor mineral illegal mining and trade.
“The major problem is where to keep the tonnes of illegal sand or other minor minerals along with equipment which has been seized. The police department refused to take the material into their custody while registering FIR,” said a mines department official.
“We have to plead with the police to file an FIR as they always refuse to do so. We have to complain against these inspectors to their superiors,” said one of the frustrated officials.
Sometimes, we have to spend money from our pockets to procure machinery to pile up the confiscated sand. One of our officers has spent his own money to procure an earthmover and the same has not been reimbursed yet, he lamented. Most of the time the confiscated items are handed over in the custody of the accused and the items then get stolen, he added.
There are many practical problems faced by the mining department raiding teams. A team has to spend more than 12 to 24 hours for a single raid to be executed.
The drivers and other lower staff sometimes refuse to go with the raiding team as there is a risk and also uncontrolled working hours involved in these type of duties.
Sometimes information about the raid gets leaked and the blame has to be borne by the poor drivers and lower staff. This is the major reason we don’t want to go with the raiding team, a lower rank staffer said.
