Sand mafia gives the slip to locals on night vigil

According to residents, there is an unavailability of drinking water in several parts of the district. “The supply line to Ambur town from the headworks located on the Malattar river near Pernambut was damaged a week ago by an earthmoving equipment used by the sand smuggling mafia, who were indulging in the illegal activity during the night hours,” a villager said, on condition of anonymity.

The villagers planned to catch the culprits and their machinery in the act and hence decided to keep a vigil. But it was of no avail as the mafia getting wind of what the group had planned fled the spot without leavingbehind any trace. After waiting for over an hour, the group returned home at midnight.

“When they revisited the site on Wednesday morning, the group found water gushing from the pipeline onto the dry river bed,” Mahila Congress state vice president J Krishnaveni told DT Next.

“Enquiries at the spot revealed that the water was going waste for nearly a week. Hence, we informed the government staff at Ambur waterhead about the damage to the pipeline andasked them to inform their superiors,” she said.

When contacted, Malattar Protection Movement president S Jalandar said, “We went to the spot following information that a senior police official had permitted the illegal sand cartel to mine sand between 11 pm and 3 am.”

“As this permission can only be given by either the PWD or the Revenue department, we went to the site to check the veracity of the information. The broken pipeline proved our suspicion true,” he said.

Jalandar also handed over a petition to the Pernambut tahsildar requesting him to safeguard the river, considered a lifeline for local farmers. It alsoprovides water to the Pernambut municipality.

District farmers’ association secretary M Nandan revealed that water level in the locality was plummeting drastically due to the prevailing hot conditions aided by illegal sand smuggling on the river.