Manipur: Sand miners stage protest against miscreants and extortionists

Imphal: Hundreds of women toiling for the day’s wages to bear their expenses took out protest rallies condemning the acts of anti-social elements who always extort money from the truckers and also opened fire guns and burnt the vehicles engaged in the transportation of sands and pebbles.

The authorities of Keihao, Tumukhong, Moirangpurel, and Itham villages vehemently condemned the act of burning vehicles engaged for quarrying and indiscriminate firing by militants at Keihao village an inter-districts of Imphal East and Kangpokpi on Sunday.

Several women who are mostly working in the sand mines in the riverbed of these inter-district areas took out protest rallies against the attacks and demand/ collection of exorbitant amounts of money as taxes from trucks engaged in the transportation of construction materials including boulders/stones from quarries in the vicinity of the four villages.

The banners and placards held by the protesters read, ‘Stop harassing truck drivers’, ‘Let the workers work in peace’, ‘Stop harassing the people’, ‘We demand the immediate attention of authorities’ etc.

The rallies were held around these villages in the aftermath of the attacks of burning the three vehicles on Sunday afternoon.

Achoubi Devi, a leader of the protest rallies said that they also condemned the collection of authorized taxes ranging from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 from each truck by miscreants for engaging in the sand mines and pebbles.