Chandrapur/Yavatmal: The Yavatmal District Mining Officer Shirish Naik sealed the Indo Unique Coal Washies located on the Ghugus-Wani Road on Thursday afternoon. Since then there has been panic among the coal traders of Chandrapur, according to a media report.
The Local Crime Branch team seized these vehicles while taking action against 8 coal smugglers on the charge of stealing coal from a private coal mine in the name of BS Ispat at Mukutban. In this operation, goods worth more than Rs 2.21 crore have been seized. With this action, the coal traders Kishore Aggarwal and Vipul Chaudhary are in deep trouble, reports said.
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It is reported that Yavatmal LCB detained 8 coal smugglers two days ago. Coal-laden vehicles are illegally stealing coal on Mukutban road in Wani, which falls under Pandharkawada sub-division. Based on this secret information, Yavatmal LCB team seized 8 vehicles including coal. These vehicles were seized near Wani police station and investigation was started.
The ploy of the traders to sell this coal in the open market was revealed. Many smugglers and coal traders came under the radar due to the losses caused to power generation companies due to coal theft and coal smugglers. LCB API Amol Munde started a thorough investigation. Official coal transportation documents could not be passed from the impounded vehicles. The seized vehicles include having numbers MH 40 BG 2658, MH 34 BZ 2528, MH 31 CQ 7466, MH 31 CQ 4752, MH 34 BZ 2529, MH 40 BG 0260, MH 29, BE MH 4048, MH 29, BE MH 4048. Immediately after that, the police started action.
After this, District Mining Officer of Yavatmal, Shirish Naik, himself had to reach the Indo Unique Coal Washery on Ghugghus-Wani road and seal it. While transporting the coal of Indo Unique Coal Washery of KPCL Company, it is said that a decision was taken to supply coal directly by rail from WCL mine. But the transporters used to empty the coal coming out of the mines in Indo Unique Washeries.
According to reports, after mixing the coal and sending it to the companies, the high quality coal was sold in the open market at double the price. This is why the Indo Unique Coal Washery is constantly mired in controversies and has the tacit approval of high-ranking officials in the administration. Finally, the officials of the mining department had to seal this washery.
The crackdown on the seized trucks on Wednesday morning has sent shockwaves through the coal industry. Wani police are now investigating where these trucks were going. Wani SHO Pradeep Siraskar had received confidential information about the illegal transportation of coal from Wani-Mukutban route. Based on this, 8 trucks loaded with coal were seized. When the police demanded documents from the concerned truck drivers, none of the drivers had valid documents.
After proper enquiry, all the trucks were seized under relevant Sections of the IPC. The seized trucks are valued at Rs 2.21 crore. Coal worth more than Rs 20.80 lakf has been seized from these trucks.
The action was carried out under the guidance of District Superintendent of Police Pawan Bansod, Addl Superintendent of Police Piyush Jagtap, Sub Divisional Police Officer Wani Sanjay Pujjalwar, SHO Pradeep Siraskar, LCB Police Inspector Pradeep Pardeshi, Assistant Police Inspectors Madhav Shinde, Amol Mudhe, Police Constables Ulhas Kurakute, Sunil Khandagale, and other personnel.
It is noteworthy that the BS Ispat Steel Plant at Mukutban in Yavatmal district is named after the defunct BS Ispat Limited located in Yensa village of Warora taluka in Chandrapur district. Private coal mines have been allocated. The contract for this private coal mine has been awarded to coal traders Kishore Aggarwal and Ashish Jain, media reports claimed.
Following the illegal policy of selling coal in the open market without taking this coal to the BS Ispat Steel Plant is highly likely to raise the eyebrows of many coal merchants. The BS Ispat Private Coal Mine located at Mukutban has a mining capacity of 30,000 tonnes per month in which 20,000 tonnes of coal will be used for the BS Ispat Steel Plant at Warora.
The remaining 10,000 tonnes of coal was to be sold in the open market, but these coal traders were extracting 60,000 tonnes of coal per month from the BS Steel mine in Mukutban without paying royalty to the state government.
