RAUTAHAT, SEPTEMBER 6 APF personnel seized 14 tippers used for transporting river-borne materials from the Bagmati River on Thursday night. Aasish Construction Bishrampur Rautahat was awarded the contract to excavate river-borne materials from Bagmati River in the last fiscal year. Due to the COVID pandemic, the excavated materials were stored in a leased private land. The construction company claimed that Rautahat DCC had given permission to ferry gravel and other river-borne materials by mid-October from the private land. APF personnel from APF Base Camp at Santapur seized 14 tippers and handed them over to Gaur District Coordination Committee for action. This has affected the tipper owners. APF DSP Bikash Bhujel said they seized the tippers for excavating river-borne materials unlawfully. He claimed that they had seized the tippers while the vehicles were illegally transporting stones, boulders and sand to various parts of the district. District Coordination Committee accountant Dev Kumar Yadav said the river-borne materials would be confiscated and legal action would be taken against them. Aasish Construction Proprietor Ashok Sah, however, doubted the DCC’s intention. “We were given the deadline of mid-October to transport the river-borne materials. On the other hand, our tippers have been seized by the APF,” Sah said. He lamented that the business hit hard by the COVID pandemic was facing unnecessary hurdles from the DCC. He urged the DCC to take a final decision on the seized tippers at the earliest. A version of this article appears in e-paper on September 7, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.