Amidst complaints of massive sand lifting from riverbed of Subarnarekha from the West Bengal end, Revenue Divisional Commissioner (Central) made a visit to district here on Sunday.
RDC Bikash Dash took stock of the situation after visiting some villages of Jaleswar accompanied by district Collector Pramod Das, SP Niti Sekhar, Sub Collector RC Palta and Jaleswar Tehsildar RC Kisku.
The villagers of South Prahrajpur, Guagadia, Praharajpur, Behera Sahi, Kuanrpur, Mankadia, Raja Nagar and Gopalpur etc alleged that massive lifting of land by Bengal mafias not only has been causing revenue loss to Odisha but making the river highly flood-prone. They alleged that the river has been changing its course and flooding many villages during the monsoon time.
It may be recalled here that there has been a dispute for many years over sand lifting between the two States as both stake claim over the river banks as their territory.
On earlier occasions, actions were taken against some of the operators who were lifting sand from the bed. While Odisha police seized their machineries, prohibitory orders under CrPc 144 too were clamped many times. Still, the sand lifting continues unabated.
The villagers alleged that the operators from the Bengal end were drawing huge quantity of sand through powerful machines.
RDC Dash asked the district Collector to submit a detailed report on the map and records pertaining to claim over the land by Odisha. He said the issue would be taken up at the Government level with the Bengal counterparts. The RDC suggested giving the sand patch on lease on short term basis.