Nirbhik Bangla News Digital Desk: To prevent the unhindered entry of sand-laden trucks and dumpers from Bihar and Jharkhand and to put a rein on illegal sand trading, the Asansol-Durgapur Police Commissionerate has now initiated unprecedented strictness. This stringent step by the state police at the West Bengal-Jharkhand border has created a significant stir among the sand merchant community.
Apart from regular checking, GPS-based photographs of the loading point have now been made mandatory to verify the authenticity of the challan. Even if drivers possess valid challans, if they do not have the GPS photograph or location of the specific sand-quarry as supporting documents, the vehicles are being stopped right at the border. As a result, long lines of hundreds of sand-laden vehicles have been seen from Dibudih up to Rupnarayanpur and the Mihijam border.
According to an administrative source, over the past few days, a syndicate has been active in extracting sand from various illegal or semi-legal quarries in Bihar and Jharkhand and smuggling it into the West Bengal market. There are allegations that sand is being illegally extracted from different locations and brought into Bengal under the guise of a specific place or fake challan. In many cases, complaints were also piling up with the police regarding sand smuggling by showing xerox copies of the same challan or making multiple trips. To put a permanent end to all these illegal activities and the dominance of the syndicate, this mega crackdown has been launched by the Asansol-Durgapur Police Commissionerate.
At the Dibudih checkpost in Asansol, one of the most important entry gates at the border, round-the-clock strict monitoring is now underway. Drivers of heavy vehicles coming from the Jharkhand side are no longer getting away by just showing government challans or tax receipts. Police officials are directly inquiring about the exact quarry from where the sand was lifted and where the GPS-location-tagged photograph of the same is. If the drivers fail to show that digital proof, they are not being allowed entry into Bengal. Similarly, the same picture has been captured at the border areas adjacent to Rupnarayanpur and Mihijam police station in Jamtara district of Jharkhand. Due to this sudden strictness, drivers and helpers associated with sand transportation at the borders of both states have fallen into extreme distress.
Meanwhile, following this rigid stance of the state police, strong buzz has started in administrative circles that Jharkhand police might soon follow a similar model. Experts believe that especially if the Jamtara district administration makes GPS photographs mandatory for sand transportation, the entire picture of inter-state sand trade will change. Although allegations have been raised that genuine traders are also facing harassment in some cases, conscious civil society is welcoming this step by the police to curb illegal sand mafias who destroy the environment and evade revenue. Now, it remains to be seen how long-lasting and fruitful this GPS surveillance by the police turns out to be in curbing the rampant illegal sand mining and transportation in this riverine region.
