A sand-smuggling allegation in West Bengal’s Paschim Bardhaman district has triggered local action and renewed questions about enforcement along the Ajay river, after residents reportedly detained 10 trucks in the Pandaveswar area and handed them over to police.
The allegation was raised by Pandaveswar MLA Jitendra Tiwari, who said sand was being lifted from river ghats in the Durgapur Faridpur and Pandaveswar areas but transported using challans issued for Birbhum. The claim was made in a social media post, according to Sangbad Pratidin.
The reported incidents centre on several ghats along the Ajay river in and around Madhaipur and Pandaveswar. The source report said sand was allegedly being extracted from the Paschim Bardhaman side of the river and moved using documentation associated with another district. The report did not provide details of the challans, the vehicles’ registration numbers or the authorities that issued the documents.
According to the report, local residents became concerned after noticing trucks allegedly operating at night to avoid attention. Residents then stopped 10 vehicles and later handed them over to the police. The account does not state whether the police formally seized the trucks, registered cases, verified the documents or began proceedings against the vehicle owners.
Tiwari thanked local residents for intervening and raised the issue of the alleged sand trade through social media. His intervention has placed the role of the police and other enforcement agencies under scrutiny, particularly over how sand extraction, transport permits and river-ghat operations are monitored.
Sand extraction from riverbeds is regulated through permits and transport documentation, making the distinction between legal and illegal movement dependent on the source of the material, the authorised ghat, the quantity extracted and the validity of the challan. In this case, the central allegation is that documentation linked to Birbhum was being used for sand taken from the Ajay river in Pandaveswar. The supplied report does not establish whether the documents were forged, misused or validly issued for a different movement.
The report also alleged that the activity could result in the loss of government revenue. It did not provide an estimate of the alleged loss, details of any royalty payments or the names of the departments responsible for checking the consignments. No police statement or response from the district administration was included in the report.
The reported detention of the trucks by residents highlights the enforcement gap that can emerge when citizens become the first visible check on suspected resource violations. However, the allegations remain subject to official investigation. The next steps will depend on whether the police verify the vehicles, their transport documents and the locations from which the sand was extracted, and whether any formal case or administrative action follows.
