Villagers halt sand lifting

TT, Jalpaiguri, June 29: People of Chhartondu area in Nagrakata today stopped 70 trucks that were loading boulders and sand illegally from the Gathia river with permits purportedly issued by the GTA.

Tapanjyoti Raha, the subdivisional officer of the irrigation department, Banarhat circle, said it was illegal to lift boulders and sand from the river with permits issued by the GTA as the area was not under the hill body's jurisdiction.

"We are sending a report to our higher ups on the Gathia incident," he said.

Nagrakata police seized five of the 70 trucks and detained its drivers. Papers showing the GTA permission for sand lifting were also recovered.

Chhartondu is about 65km from here.

A few months back, the Green Tribunal had asked the state to keep a vigil on the lifting of boulders and sand from rivers without the permission of the irrigation department.

"For the past three days, some trucks from Kalimpong have been coming here, along with excavators, and loading boulders and sand leaving behind huge holes in the river bed. When there is no rain, the river water gets collected in the huge cavities and we are not able to irrigate our crops. We stopped their work today," said Sanjib Roy, a villager.

A senior official of the GTA irrigation department in Darjeeling, who didn't want to be named, said: "I have not heard of boulders or sand being lifted with GTA permits in Jalpaiguri district. However, we do issue permits for lifting boulders, sand and shingle from rivers but that is only within the GTA area."