Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (HB)

Udupi, May 26: Ramesh Kanchan, member of the CMC, here, on Tuesday May 26 submitted a memorandum to the Karnataka Lokayukta through the district DC asking for a fair ACB inquiry to be conducted into the recent illegal sand mining case in Swarna river which was carried out in the name of dredging.

The Swarna river is one of the many sources of water in the city. "It was a plan carried out by the contractors to illegally extract sand in the name of dredging. There is a committee to approve the tender, which includes 14 members from different departments. But in the recent incident, I suspect that many officials are involved in illegal sand mining. The contractors have violated all the rules. No one has given permission to remove silt from Mane to Shiroor, but they have done so and collected loads of sand," alledged Kanchan.

"Illegally collected sand is stored in Udupi, Poyyadangadi in Bommarabettu, Salmara of Shiroor and Nujji and other parts of the forest area. They have also sold sand which was transported illegally for over lac of rupees. Many local builders purchased sand through the black market and stored it illegally. They also cheated the government without paying a royalty. A respected committee chaired by the district commissioner completely failed to monitor such a huge scam in the district. Even after many complaints from the local public, the district administration did not take any action against them.

"Hence, the Karnataka Lokayukta has to conduct a probe on the issue."

Kanchan urged the Lokayukta to take action against the monitoring committee president, members, people representatives and members including those who are linked in illegal sand mining and seize 500 loads of illegally stored sand from several places.

A memorandum copy was handed over to DC, G Jagadeesh and ACB inspector, and deputy superintendent of police (DySP) of Lokayukta.

Congress leaders Vishwas Amin, Prakhyath Shetty, Satish Amin Padukere, Harish Kini, Prashanth Poojary, R K Ramesh, Yathish Karkera, Charan and Sanjay Acharya were present.