There was no discrimination in large scale illegal sand mining during five years of YCP anarchetic regime. Papaghni, Penna, Kundu, Chyere and tributaries were also excavated indiscriminately. Ignoring the warnings of the Supreme Court and NGT, excavations were carried out with heavy machinery.
The contracting company Jayaprakash Power Ventures is the main agency in YSR and Annamaiya districts from May 2021 to November 2023 carried out such illegal acts. While Turnkey Enterprises acted as the subcontractor, all payments to the government were made through JP.
Who is behind the sand gangs? How did the beheading come about after killing those who obstructed and those who questioned? Why did the authorities not stop the sand robbery gangs?
Vigilance officials have initiated indepth probe into all these aspects. The suicide attempt of Narayana Reddy, a sand miner of Porumamilla, YSR district, by drinking pesticide created panic. While a key leader from Kamalapuram constituency was in YSRCP, he rebelled against his own party leaders over the sand havoc.
Later approached the court and joined TDP for more support while fighting Sand Danda. The Vigilance also got the details of this leader. Vigilance has gathered the details of the ruling party leaders from Siddawatha sharing the docks and handing over the monthly routines to the leaders of the previous government.
Efforts are being made to meet the victims who are forced to pay a high amount of money in addition to the lack of profit from the sale of sand. Through them, efforts are being made to file charges against the former government leaders. Vigilance is probing issues such as handwritten bills, cash collections without digital payments.
In Annamaya district, two key YSRCP leaders saw a sand rush. Seeing all this, complaints are pouring in at the field level against the DD of the Mines Department, who has retired from service as a whistleblower. It is learned that the complainants said that the then Collectors and DD did not pay attention to complaints about the sand levy.
