Team Herald
PANJIM: A team of the Directorate of Mines rounded up six canoes involved in extracting sand in Colvale early Wednesday morning and arrested six labourers. Mines officers said the raid was conducted at 3.30am following a complaint from a local resident Saidas Khorjuekar.
The team seized the six canoes with the help of officers of the Captain of Ports and the Coastal Police. All six canoes were filled with sand at the time of raid and some of the labourers involved in the extraction fled by jumping into the river.
An officer said that all the canoes had valid sand extraction licences but were extracting sand at night which is a violation of the licence.
Those arrested have been booked under Section 379 (theft) of Indian Penal Code and rule 3 of Goa Minor Mineral Concession Rules and given into the custody of Mapusa Police Station. All six seized canoes are in custody of the Captain of Ports.
The raiding team comprised Sudhir Mandrekar, Sankalp Desai, Nitin Atoskar Assistant Geologists and Shyam Sawant Technical Assistant of Mines Department.
