Iritti: The panchayat intervened to stall rock mining by illegally taking over more than 90 acres of rocky land in the tribal rehabilitation region. Despite being a rehabilitation region, land has not been handed over to the tribal families yet.

The panchayat authorities discovered that rocks have been blasted off using explosives in the rehabilitation region in Kottapara in block ten.

Farmers often burst firecrackers during the day and night to scare and drive away wild animals. Thus, rocks were blasted off without drawing attention of the people as sounds of explosives have become common here. Besides, the group that came to mine the rocks have allegedly encroached a house in the rehabilitation area.

The residents of the locality who noticed this immediately alerted the panchayat authorities. Panchayat president V Shoba and vice president Jimmy Anthinat visited the spot. They stated that rocks were blasted off without securing the NOC from the panchayat and that legal action would be initiated against the perpetrators.