Kangpokpi: Eight trucks carrying Dimapur sand and two trucks with river stones sourced from the illegal quarry sites of Imphal Iril Protected Forests were seized by the Forest officials.
The trucks were detected by the officials of Kangpokpi Forest Division here last Monday during a routine checking of vehicles travelling along National Highway No. 02 between Dimapur and Imphal.
As mandated by rule 37 (5) of MFR, 2021, the driver should be in possession of a Certificate of Origin issued by the concerned DFO in prescribed format and other relevant documents for transportation of such forest products, which they were unable to produce, officials said.
Thereafter, the Range Forest Officer seized and confiscated the forest products, vehicles and tools used in committing the offence and Preliminary Offence Reports (POR) were filed under relevant sections of the law.
The sand and stones so confiscated were released after payment of the requisite fee of Rs .15,000 for the sand and Rs. 5000 for the stones per vehicle.
The Range Forest Officers have instructed the first-time offenders to pay the required fees at the concerned Forest Revenue Stations to avoid such incidents. Repeated offenders will not be let off but will be dealt with sternly as per the law, the DFO said.
Meanwhile, N Ganesh, IFS, Divisional Forest Officer, Kangpokpi Forest Division, Manipur, said that a lot of trucks carrying so called Dimapur sand in Manipur is transiting without requisite transit pass, bypassing the forest beat officers along the Imphal-Dimapur Highway, resulting in lot of revenue loss to the State exchequer to the tune of Rs 3 lakh per day.
The concerned are hereby directed to pay requisite royalty and transit fee to avoid any legal action in the jurisdiction of Kangpokpi Forest Division. Any vehicle found to have entering the jurisdiction of the Division without valid documents will be seized and compounded/confisticated as per law, the officer added.
