Officials meet to discuss illegal sandlifting

A meeting between officials of Odisha&’s Balasore district and Bengal&’s West Midnapore was held to try and resolve the dispute over illegal lifting of sand from the Subarnarekha river bed.

It was decided that a joint task force will be formed to monitor the situation. While there have been tension over the issue, the meeting is seen as a positive steps towards mitigating the contentious issue between the two states.

The residents of both sides complain that the sand was being lifted from the riverbed of Subarnarekha illegally.

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The joint committee decided to form a task force involving police and tehsil staff of both districts to monitor the sand lifting.

The meeting decided to ban the use of power driven pumps to extract sand while both sides will ensure that sand is lifted only from the demarcated area. The lifter will have to possess the order and further revenue paid clearance before lifting.

The illegal lifting would be checked by both the states. The boundary dispute would be resolved at the government level and till such time the task force will regulate sand lifting in the contentious area.

Surendra Kumar Meena, the additional district magistrate W Medinapur. District mineral manager PK Singh, the sub-divisional land reform officer RK Jena, SDPO, Kharagpur, Santosh Mandal, the BDO, Dantun, and revenue and police staff of Bengal attended the meet.

From Balasore district, additional magistrate Manmath Pani, sub collector Ramchandra Palta, additional SP Santosh Nayak, tehsildar Ramchandra Kisku, the local IIC Jaleswar were among those present.

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