Desperate sand mining within the prohibited zone had been posing a severe threat to the Rs 300cr drinking water project for Burdwan town. The police, followed by a complaint by the civic body, cracked down on the offenders, booking 12 miscreants yesterday.

After the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee spoke about organised sand mafia on Monday, chairman, Burdwan Municipality lodged a complaint with the district police yesterday where he expressed concern over the desperate sand mining in the Damodar riverbed, close to the water project. Paresh Chandra Sarkar, the chairman said, “The miscreants were using country boats for lifting sand from the restricted zone reserved for the water infiltration gallery and this posed a severe threat to the entire project.” The infiltration galleries are the horizontal source made from open jointed or perforated pipes and are laid below water tables for collection of groundwater. Such underwater galleries need permeable soils to allow sufficient water collection, hourly.

Sarkar added, “Police was informed about the mining in the gallery areas, but remained indifferent.”

The Burdwan Municipality had kicked off the work for the ambitious Rs 300cr Amrut project four-and-a-half years ago. The pump house for the purpose was installed beside the Damodar at Jujuti village in Galsi PS area, exactly 15.4 km away from the town. The first piped drinking water supply arrived in the town on 29 November, 2021 and in June, 2023, the civic body invited bidders for the second phase. The civic body already has endured 50,000 drinking water connections and supplies are made directly through 10 overhead reservoirs.

The ministry of urban development has launched the Amrut Mission for augmentation of infrastructure for drinking water supply aiming to ensure every household gets access to a tap with assured supply of water, besides improving the quality of life with a sewage connection.

After the civic body lodged a complaint yesterday, a joint force of the police from Galsi, Khandaghosh and Burdwan thanas suddenly cracked down on the offenders heavily this morning. The SP, East Burdwan, Amandeep Singh, said, “Twelve offenders were arrested and six tractors, three loaded trolleys were seized from the spot.” Some country boats used for ferrying sand also were seized. The accused have been slapped with the charges of theft and pilferage of national property and criminal conspiracy (under Sections- 411, 413, 414, 379 & 120 B of the IPC) and two separate cases have been registered at Burdwan and Galsi PS respectively. The district police, from last January till 28 June, 2024, seized 241 vehicles used for trafficking of sand from the Damodar and the Ajoy riverbed.

This month, 71 such vehicles had been seized so far and 14 were from the Ausgram PS area. On the same Damodar riverbed, a mechanized excavator from Galsi drowned in Bankura. On 2 May, Chief Justice, Calcutta High Court, TS Sivagnanam ordered the Bankura administration to hold a sudden inspection of the riverbed within eight weeks to see whether machines were deployed illegally for sand extraction. The mishap had occurred within six weeks and no official had visited the site before that despite the CHC order.