Illegal excavation of minor minerals: 11 vehicles seized

Chhatrpati Sambhajinagar: Additional tehsildar Nitin Garje's team seized 11 vehicles when the minor minerals were being excavated illegally at Deolai area on Wednesday.

The action which started at 10 am today continued until late night. Additional tehsildar’s team was patrolling in a private vehicle on Wednesday morning. The team saw that five poclains excavating murum at gut no 71 in Deolai while six hyvas were transporting it.

On seeing the revenue team at the spot, the drivers of hyvas and poclains fled. Minor mineral mafia and citizens rushed to the spot when the action was being taken.

Chikalthana police were called taking into mind the situation. As the citizens became more aggressive, tehsildar Ramesh Mundlod of the village also arrived there with his staff.

The additional police force was called for assistance.

Additional tehsildar Garje, Nayab tehsildar Prashant Deode, Revenue Assistants Sandeep Hapat, Shrikant Ankush, Ramdas Mogul, Shivaji Harkal and clerk Jitendra Jadhav participated in the action.

During the last fortnight, additional collector Dr Arvind Lokhande seized vehicles illegally transporting and storing sand in the Padampura area. But, out of the six seized vehicles, three were stolen from the tehsil office by the sand mafia.

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Inadequate space for seized vehicles

With the help of private drivers, three hyvas were parked in the tehsil office premises.

Since a poclain could not be driven by road, it was brought to the tehsil office by a truck. There has been an increase in the number of seized vehicles. So, the space was proving insufficient in the premises.