Stern action against sand smugglers

VELLORE: Around 300 members of the Vellore unit of Tamil Nadu Village Administrative Officers, Village Assistants (VAs) and Revenue Officials Associations on Sunday staged a protest in front of Tirupattur Taluk office demanding stringent action against the sand smugglers who attacked S Rajendran, village assistant of Jayapuram, and tried to bury him alive in Kottaru River near Tirupattur on Saturday.Revenue officials said Thirupathy has been smuggling sand from Kottaru River for years. He had also attacked revenue officials in the past. The district administration and police should take severe action against such notorious criminals. “We have submitted a petition to Sub-collector Tirupattur Shilpa Prabhakar and also met ASP Dharmarajan and submitted a petition to him demanding stern action against sand smuggler Thirupathy. He also used filthy language mentioning the caste name of VA Rajendran,” said district president of VAOs Association K Madhivannan.Recollecting the earlier incidents, Rajendran said that the revenue officials    nd seized around 60 loads of sand dumped at Thirupathy’s house a year ago.Officials also confiscated one of his tractors 2 years ago and kept it at the Tirupattur tahsildar’s office. He, however, took the vehicle away at night.