Team Herald
PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has expressed it disappointment over Goa police’s closure report into illegal sand mining at River Ragada.
The police in its status report to the bench stated that a closure report into the First Information Report (FIR) was filed after the Directorate of Mines & Geology asserted that it had compounded the case. During the hearing of a suo motu public interest litigation regarding illegal dredging in River Ragada in Dharbandora on Wednesday, the bench questioned the move taken by the police despite the fact that theft of sand did occur.
The court also emphasised that government is only a trustee and not the owner of natural resources while also stating that natural resources belong to every citizen. It also observed that Water Resources Department had unnecessarily carried out desilting at the site.
In the last hearing, the court stated that not only criminal proceeding against the culprit is required in the matter but authorities have to ensure appropriate recovery. In August 2019, the high court had observed that illegal river dredging or illegal sand mining is like exploiting mother earth and such cases are as serious as a crime of murder.
It had come to light some years back that the tributary of the river had been ravaged for several days by continuous sand extraction using machinery, barely 100 mtrs away from the Molem wildlife sanctuary. The trucks had also moved in to transport the sand away to another site.
