Zilla panchayat president Nitin Guttedar has charged BJP leader Arunkumar Patil with making ‘wild allegations’ of sand extraction with an intent to malign his image.
At a press conference here on Saturday, Mr. Guttedar also produced a copy of the FIR registered by the Revenue Department officials against Mr. Patil charging illegal extraction of sand in Afzalpur taluk.
Mr. Patil is the son of former MLA M. Y. Patil.
Mr. Guttedar said that the district administration has identified only six blocks for sand extraction in Afzalpur taluk and the tender for the same was floated 20 months ago.
But, sand was being extracted unauthorisedly in other blocks by people with vested interests, including the family members of Mr. Patil, he alleged.
The Revenue Department officials have seized 225 truckload of sand that was illegally extracted from Bhima river and stored in the field belonging to Mr. Patil, he added.
Mr. Guttedar said that all the allegations made against him and Afzalpur MLA Malikayya Guttedar are false.
“Mr. Patil is trying to tarnish our image to gain political mileage,” he added. It can be recalled here that,Mr. Patil had recently alleged that Mr. Nitin Guttedar and Mr. Malikayya Guttedar were indulging in large scale illegal sand extraction with the help of the official machinery and the police.
