Cuttack: In what could be just the tip of the ice-berg of a major scam, the Cuttack district administration intercepted a goods train while transporting sand illegally from Nergundi station here on Friday night.
Acting on the information by Tangi tehsildar, Cuttack collector and other administrative officials and police conducted a surprise raid and detained sand that was being illegally transported to Uttar Pradesh.
“After getting information, I had asked Revenue Inspector to conduct a probe and later found that sand was being accumulated at Nergundi and then loaded on to goods train,” said Tehsildar Tangi-Choudwar Abhinash Rout.
Rout further stated that permission of government is required for transportation of minerals to other states. We have demanded the agency to produce necessary documents so that further course of action can be decided.
Sources said, nearly 3800 tonne of sand was supposed to be transported to Uttar Pradesh from Cuttack in 40 wagons of the goods train. Already sand was loaded in 11 wagons when the administrative officials stopped the illegal transportation of sand.
According to reports, the sand was excavated from CDA sector-11 quarry and sold to an Uttar Pradesh based agency.
“We had taken lease and basing on it we were transporting it to Uttar Pradesh,” said Sanjay Prashant, official of the agency of Uttar Pradesh.
However, as the officials of the agency could not produce any relevant documents regarding transport of sand from Cuttack to other states, the administration has detained the consignment till completion of further inquiry into the incident.
“No permission from administration was given for sand transportation to other states,” said Collector Nirmal Chandra Mishra.
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