Saudan Construction Company, which won the contract in the fiscal year 2068/69 BS to dig up gravel and stones of Seuti Khola at the cost of Rs 17 million , is now running excavators around unauthorized areas within three kilometers south of the Seuti Bridge.[break]
District Development Committee (DDC) of Sunsari had marked a three-kilometer-area south of the Seuti Bridge as a vulnerable zone a year ago. However, around 50 trucks of gravel and stones are being removed from the vulnerable zone of Seuti Khola every day.
Last week, the District Administration Office (DAO) of Sunsari had warned of deploying police personnel to prevent the extraction of gravel and stones from Seuti Khola. However, the unauthorized mining continues unabated until now.
The locals said that the continuous extraction of gravel and stones from the vulnerable zone of Seuti Khola posed a threat to several settlements in Hansposa and Baklauri VDC of Sunsari.
Asked about the exploitation of natural resources in the restricted zone, Chief District Officer (CDO) of Sunsari Laxman Bahadur Thapa passed the buck on environment officer.
“We have already charged an environment officer with the task of monitoring the extraction in the forbidden area,” said Thapa.
Sijan Gurung of Saudan Construction has maintained that his company started taking out gravel and stones from the restricted area of Seuti Khola because local hoodlums prevented extraction from authorized area.
On the other hand, the company that is extracting gravel and stones from the restricted zone has not even paid to District Development Office of Sunsari. The company was to pay over Rs 17 millions to the DDO by April. However, it has yet to pay over Rs 6 million to the government.
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