PUNE: The Solapur district administration’s inquiry into sand mining in Kurdu village in Karmala taluka of Solapur, which led to a verbal exchange over a cellphone call between deputy CM Ajit Pawar and IPS officer Anjana Krishna, has established that the excavation was illegal and the police’s intervention was right. An FIR was registered against those carrying out the illegal mining.The deputy CM received flak for the manner in which he spoke to the IPS officer after his party member from the village called him up and requested his intervention to stop police action. After the video of the cellphone conversation surfaced on social media, an FIR was registered against people from the village for preventing govt officials from performing their duties.Pawar later clarified that he did not mean to interfere with law enforcement but wanted to ensure the situation at the village remained calm. Some NCP members questioned the IPS officer’s action and claimed that she went to the village despite no illegal mining in Kurdu village.Sand excavation in Kurdu illegal because no permission taken, says district official Solapur district collector Kumar Ashirwad initiated an inquiry into the incident, and the tehsildar of Karmala submitted the report on Tuesday. A senior official from the district administration told TOI, “Even if sand excavation is to be carried out for any public work, prior permission from the tehsildar is required. Though no royalty is charged by the office, work cannot be started without the appropriate permission.“The official said the inquiry found permission was not taken before starting excavation work and hence it was an illegal act. “The action being taken by the authorities was totally justified,” the official said.In addition to the FIR against persons for preventing public servants from performing their duties, another FIR was registered against them for carrying out illegal mining.Lok Sabha MP from Madha Dhairyasheel Mohite Patil on Tuesday claimed that the villagers of Kurdu are living in fear due to sand mafia. He said, “Before the IPS officer’s visit to Kurdu, a team of revenue officials went there to take action against the illegal mining. But the sand mafia tried to attack and threatened them. They were told to leave the village. The state forest department also submitted a complaint of illegal sand mining on their land, but no case was registered.”“I demand that CM give the collector and the superintendent of police of Solapur a free hand to expose the real sand mafia behind the nexus in the region,” Mohite Patil said.Solapur’s guardian minister Jaykumar Gore said, “Govt stands by all officers taking action against illegal work. They will not feel pressure while performing duties. Action against sand mafia will continue.”
