District Collector Orders Stern Action Against Illegal Sand Transportation In City

Aurangabad District Collector Dilip Swami has directed the officers to take stern action against the illegal sand transportation in the city and file cases against the responsible persons. The police, revenue, and transport departments should jointly initiate a drive against the sand mafia, Swami mentioned.

He was addressing a meeting of the district-level sand control committee held at the district collectorate on Wednesday. SP Dr. Vinaykumar Rathod, Additional District Collector Dr. Arvind Lokhande, Resident Deputy District Collector Vinod Khirolkar, Deputy Regional Transport Officer Manish Gaund, District Mining Officer Kishor Khodke, Senior Geologist Jeevan Bedwal, Senior PI Sandeep Gurme, Deputy Superintendent Land Records Nilesh Unde, Deputy CEO R.G. Desale, and other officers and tehsildars were present.

The officers informed that in all, 174 cases of illegal mining and transportation of minor minerals were registered last year, and a fine to the tune of Rs 3.33 crores was levied, of which Rs 1.97 crore has been recovered. Cases were registered in 23 cases, and 167 vehicles and 4 machines were seized. Presently, 10,046 brass of sand is available in the major 4 sand depots in the district, of which 4,701 brass has been reserved for the Gharkul scheme beneficiaries and 4,384 for government constructions.

Swami directed that the mines in the district should be inspected through the land records department. Illegal sand digging is a grave issue, and a collective drive should be initiated by the police, revenue, and transport departments.