VASCO: The Coast Police on Friday intercepted a motorized canoe boat involved in illegal extraction of sand at Panchawadi in Ponda. The canoe boat was containing 6 cubic meters (approx) of freshly extracted wet sand and the same was seized by the police.
According to Coastal Police Inspector Nerlon Albuquerque, soon after the people involved in the illegal extraction of sand noticed the costal police patrolling team, they all jumped in the water and escaped.
“We have seized the canoe containing 6 cubic meters (approx) of freshly extracted wet sand like material. After the seizure we contacted officials of the mine department as well as captain of ports officials and handed over the case to them. It is learnt that the mine department have taken cognizance of the case and have initiated process to issue show cause notice to the canoe owner Mario Colaco (resident of Ponda), who is having valid licence to extract but was extracting sand in the ban period (From June to September)” Albuquerque said.
Meanwhile, sources informed Herald that there was a bit of confusion among the officials of caption of ports and mines department after the coastal police seized the canoe boat. Sources claimed that though the mines department took custody of the canoe, the department does not have infrastructure or manpower to offload the sand.
The mines officers were reluctant to take custody of the canoe but assured to initiate action against the canoe owner. Similarly the captain of port officials were reluctant to take custody of canoe until the sand gets unloaded and finally after taking an undertaking the canoe along with sand was handed over back to the owner.
