BJP MLA Bamb seeks ACB probe into nexus of sand mafia and officials

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: BJP MLA Prashant Bamb on Tuesday demanded stringent action against revenue and police officials, including an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) inquiry, alleging that illegal sand mining continued unchecked in Gangapur taluka of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.He also alleged that beneficiaries of the state’s free sand scheme for housing projects were deprived of their entitlement for the past eight months. Bamb claimed that he personally visited the sites with police personnel and local residents after officials failed to act and got them raided in the past two days.“I informed district collector Vinay Gowda and shared video evidence of the stockpiles, following which security was deployed overnight and administrative action was initiated,” the BJP leader said.“Repeated complaints yielded no action. This forced me to conduct raids with police personnel and local residents at eight illegal sand stockpiles, leading to the seizure of around 2,500 brass of sand — enough for nearly 500 houses under the govt scheme,” he said.Bamb, who represents the Gangapur-Khuldabad assembly constituency of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, alleged that revenue and police officials ignored repeated complaints despite being provided with specific locations of illegal sand stockpiles.

“The administration failed to implement govt's decision to provide five brass of sand free of cost to eligible housing scheme beneficiaries,” he said.The MLA said he had been pursuing the issue with the local revenue administration for nearly eight months, urging officials to issue coupons to beneficiaries of housing schemes through a simple process.He accused the concerned taluka-level revenue official of failing to curb illegal sand transportation despite repeated warnings. According to Bamb, the district administration, led by collector Vinay Gowda, has now begun distributing the seized sand, with 260 brass allotted to 52 beneficiaries and another 2,235 brass earmarked for 447 other beneficiaries.