DERGAON, Nov 30 - The Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Golaghat seized four dumpers and has made arrangements to lodge an FIR with the Golaghat Police for illegal use of an excavator (JCB) to collect sand at Doigrong sand mahal at Doigrong river in upper Assam�s Golaghat district, on Friday.
Following the direction from the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Golaghat, the Golaghat DFO Bhaskar Deka visited the mahal and found four dumpers busy along with a JCB to collect the sand by the bank of the river.
Though the mahal is a registered one, but the use of JCB in a �live� river is prohibited by Forest Act so the dumpers were seized by the DFO but the JCB driver managed to flee from the site along with the vehicle. However, the DFO is all set to lodge an FIR against the owner of the JCB.
Following a video clipping of collecting the sand using a JCB in the social media, the Golaghat Deputy Commissioner Dhiren Hazarika asked Assistant Commissioner Papu Gogoi to visit the site and to submit a ground report on the issue.
�I visited the site and submitted the report to the DC,� Papu Gogoi said. DC Dhiren Hazarika told this correspondent that the report of the Assistant Commissioner revealed the fact of the use of the JCB to collect sand, which was illegal.
�I instructed the DFO to submit all the relevant documents about the mahal and of the vehicles for further action,� the DC said.
He also said that all possible action would be initiated against the law breakers.
An allegation was levelled that the sand collected at the mahal illegally by using different machinery had damaged the banks of the river for which the residents living by the river were at great risk in the monsoon season due to massive erosion.
Journalist and nature activist Apurba Ballav Goswami at Golaghat said that the extracting of sand illegally in different mahals of the district was a regular practice. �The Forest officials have sadly failed to tackle such activities, for reasons best known to them�, Goswami said.
He also said that the former DFO of Golaghat Rajib Kumar Das had been arrested by the Bureau of Investigation (BI) of Economic Offences of Assam Government for alleged involvement in illegal sand collection in Doigrong river.
DFO Deka ruled out any involvement of his office in illegal activities. �The mahal is a registered one and so nothing can be done without our notice�, the DFO said.
He also said that the owner of the mahal had revealed that the petty contractors engaged in supplying the sand used the JCB without his permission.�
