Sitting amid the blackened remains of his home, 32-year-old Nikesh Gawali carefully broke open a half-melted plastic box with a screwdriver. His hands shook slightly, not out of fear, but out of hope. “I’m trying to find my daughter Aarti’s gold earrings,” he said quietly, still focused on the box. “She’s just five. I got them made recently after months of labour work.” The plastic box, warped and blackened by heat, was one of the few things left from his two-room house on the outskirts of Dhamangaon village . All around him lay ash, broken tin sheets and charred wooden beams. The walls had cracked under the heat and the front room’s tin roof had caved in completely. What remained was a blackened debris all around - almost nothing to suggest a home once stood there. Nikesh earns his living as an agricultural labourer, like many in the village. Work is uncertain and depends on the season. Those earrings weren’t just jewellery - they were a small dream, a reward for his hard work,...
Increasing attacks on Revenue Department officials by sand-mafias is a cause of worry. In spite of facing threats to their lives, its a matter of investigation why Revenue Officials are preferring to undertake solo missions. Given the risks involved, isn't it preferable to take along police posse so that it can act as a deterrent and nip in bud any misadventure on part of the gangsters.
With demand for sand increasing owing to spurt in construction activity over the years, the sand-mafias are indulging in massive excavation of sand from river basin to pocket more profit. The business is largely run by the organised gangs and it also thrived due to complex rules framed by the State Government on excavation of sand.
Conducting raids on these criminal elements is not an easy task as they are always ready to defend their 'booty' as they have taken quite a risk in excavating the sand and transporting it to city. So they see actions on part of Revenue Officials in stopping them midway to their destination as unnecessary obstruction and are ready to take the bull head on.
In October 2018, a truck engaged in illegal sand transportation had tried to allegedly mow down three officials of Revenue Department when they hailed the driver truck to stop at Umred. Earlier, a team of Naib Tehsildar was attacked near Dighori Naka by the sand smugglers.
On Tuesday again, sand-mafias tried to mowed down the Revenue Officials on-duty under their car when the officials were checking trucks laden with sand. These and other incidents reported across the State needs a thought why Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) is not put in place so that action against the sand-mafias can be done by joint teams of Revenue Officials and Police Department. However no ground this is not the practice these days and it seems Revenue officials always avoid taking along police team for reasons best known to them.
The Hitavada contacted some of the top police officials and the District Collector to get to bottom of the reason behind such incidents.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Zone IV Raj Tilak Roushan said that the Revenue Officials had not opted for the police protection while checking the trucks in Nandanvan area on Tuesday. “They only opted for police protection around six months ago when a joint action was taken against illegal sand transportation on Umred Road,” DCP Roushan informed further.
Joint Commissioner of Police (Joint CP) Ravindra Kadam said that the City Police was always ready to give police protection to officials. However, such requests are very rare to his office.
When contacted District Collector Ashwin Mudgal told The Hitavada that the officials are conducting raids after receiving a specific tip-off that expires within an hour or so as trucks move from one spot to another. After receiving the information, the officials immediately started checking of trucks, he said. “Its difficult for the officials to waste time in writing letters to the police for protection as it would reduce chances of busting the illegal business and catching the culprits raid handed,” he said.
We are conducting a full-day action every month against illegal sand-transportation with the police,” Mudgal further claimed. However, Mudgal accepted that he had issued directives to the Revenue Officials to take police team along with them while initiating action against the mafias.
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