Karkala: The newly appointed SI of Karkala Rural Rafeeq has started his mission against sand mafia in the taluk and has confiscated as many as 32 lorries and recovered Rs 3,23,200 as penalty.
In the 14-days operation against sand mining, the police came across lorries laden with excess quantity of sand being transported to Chikkamagaluru from Mangaluru, Gurupura, Kaikamba and Addor region.

This is the first achievement of the newly inducted station officer of Karkala. The operation was held from May 5 to May 19 and the police have given warning to the sand mafia to mend its ways. During the raid, it has been known that even though 16,200 tonnes of sand can be transported in a lorry, the sand miners were transporting three to five tonnes extra in each lorry.

A question arises as to why only Karkala rural police are acting against sand mining even though there are police stations in Bajpe, Moodabidri and Karkala town police station. These sand laden lorries pass through these stations but no action has been taken by them.

Meanwhile these sand laden lorries and other heavy goods carriers have become a nuisance to commuters on S K Border which is a connecting point to Udupi and Chikkamagaluru districts. Due to these lorries number of accidents have increased.

Though police have the permission to seize the erring sand laden lorries, the direct fine can be imposed only by the RTO- Rs 2000 for overloading, Rs 1000 per extra tonne.