The State Mines Department at Jharsuguda seems to be caring little to safeguard mineral resources of the district. This has been confirmed from a number of incidents here.
While the police, on a number of occasions, have seized different varieties of valuable stones and quartz, the achievement of the Mines Department in this respect is almost zero. On the contrary, the dishonest officials of the department have ensured that the smugglers go scot-free. It is alleged that the nexus between the smugglers and officials in the Mines department has made them earn crores of rupees.
The Rengali police have seized a truck load of quartz on April 24, while in October last year the Belpahar police also had seized a tipper loaded with quartz. The tipper is still there in the police station premises as it has gone unclaimed. Even if the police have launched sporadic raids to keep tab on illegal transportation of minerals, the mines department has been totally silent on the matter.
As per information, the police at Rengali led by the OIC Akash Sahu seized a truck load of quartz near Jamgan. The truck was going to Chhattisgarh. The police also arrested driver Dibakar Dhurua and forwarded him to court. After seizure of the vehicle, the police also searched for the place of procurement of the valuable stone and found that over 120 tons had been stealthily dispatched from Belpahar area illegally. Since the area comes under Odisha- Chhattisgarh area, the activity of the police and mining department is very limited here which gives a leeway to the smugglers. At the same time, the shifting of a joint check gate to Govindpur from Kanaktora has proved to be a boon for smugglers.
The result: the smugglers have engaged a number of villagers as labourers to mine the quartz available aplenty in the locality and sell them in Chhattisgarh at high prices. When contacted, mining officer of Jharsuguda Bimbadhar Sethi did not give any comment.