ILAM, June 1: Police have taken two excavators under custody for illegal sand extraction from the Ratuwa River bank of Mangsebung rural municipality. Chief District Officer’s team seized the key and took the excavators under custody.
According to Shrawan Kumar Timsina, Chief District Officer, the illegal sand was extracted to construct Damak-Rabi road at Mangsebung rural municipality-5. Timsina said that the operators could face legal actions for mining because “it was illegal to extract sand from river banks using excavators,” he added.
Rampant extraction at Khutiya River roils locals
As local government was responsible to oversee the issue, the chief district officer said that they informed District Coordination Committee (DCC) for necessary investigation.
Timsina and his team were returning from a program at Biratnagar when they caught excavators being used to extract sand from the river bank.
The owners of the two excavators are assumed to be from Jhapa. According to locals neighboring Ilam and Jhapa, every year, they had conflicts with sand miners who encroached the Chure basins for illegal mining.
Extracting sand from river banks is not given permission until Initial Environmental Examination is completed. “I don’t think any rivers of Mangsebung has gone through the environmental examination,” according to chief of DCC, Ganesh Baral.
“We will meet at the DCC today and come up suitable punishment,” Baral added.
