Tehsildar poses as labourer, raids stone quarries in Karnataka

SHIVAMOGGA: A tehsildar in Shivamogga, Karnataka, disguised himself as a labourer by wearing a T-shirt and covering his face with a towel, and then worked at a stone quarry in Gejjenahalli village to check for irregularities. He then led a raid on the place, seized two tractors, a JCB and other equipment used for quarrying. He went with a village accountant on motorcycles to execute the raid.
“I reported for duty as tehsildar here on January 17. Since then I’ve been trying to put a halt to illegal stone and sand mining across the taluk. People have been calling me and sharing details. After I raided several stone quarries, they felt I was serious about it. People stopped calling me once elections were announced as they assumed I would be busy. After polling was over, they started calling again to tip me off about illegal mining,” said tehsildar B N Girish.
“Locals told me about the Gejjinahalli quarry in March. I had raided it earlier. But labourers stopped work when they spotted my vehicle. Miners have such a strong network that when unknown vehicles enter , they stop work and flee. That’s when I decided to go in disguise so no would recognise me,” he said.
Girish added that they realised he was an officer only when he started the inquiry. “Gejjenahalli has several stone quarries, but I could raid only four as the men in other places got information and ran away. I plan to use a similar method to tackle illegal sand mining problem in the taluk,” he said.