The villagers of Raibania have embarked on an indefinite hunger-strike in front of Jaleswar tehsil office in protest against lifting of sand from the bed of Subarnarekha river at West Bengal end.
Meanwhile, the local tehsildar and the police have been on their toes and swung into action to crack down on the sand mafias. However, irate villagers detained the officials of the district, including the tehsildar, for about 6 hours for failing to arrest the mafias. The officials were freed after they assured to take action against the illegal sand lifting works within a week.
Jaleswar tehsildar Ramchandra Kisku said, “Although we had gone to the site but we could do little as the sand lifters of Bengal and their supporters were armed. Besides, they couldn’t be approached as there was water in the river.”
“last year in May, in an attempt to resolve the crisis, there had been a high level administrative meeting with Bengal counterparts and it was decided to have a demarcation of boundary of each State in the disputed site yet the Bengal counterparts failed to attend the meetings of later dates. On the other hand, we had demarcated our area as per our map and records. Since the dispute has emerged again, I have appraised about the current situation to the higher authorities,” said Kisku.
The villagers alleged that the lifting of sand from the riverbed by the mafias of WB through high-speed, swamp machines was illegal and lamented that there was no action against them from Odisha side.
They observed that the life and livelihood of the residents of at least seven villages of Jaleswar (Raibania) including , Makidia, Kuanpur,Beherasahi, Rajnagar , Dakhinpraharajpur, Guagadia and Makrampur were severely affected by the illegal operation.
The Subarnarekha while is in the border of Odisha and Bengal yet the sand mafias from the latter end are lifting sands unrestricted causing environmental imbalance, including erosion of bank , threat to the dwelling houses, school buildings and agriculture lands etc .
Makidia sarapanch Balram Barsal said that 32 high speed pumps from Bengal end were engaged in lifting sand from the bed. About 500 trucks and lorries are engaged in the operation.
Although in the past the district administration of Baleswar conducted raids and seized machineries and held talks with its Bengal counterpart, yet the lifting of sand is continuing unabated, he added.