raipur stating arpa river as the pride of the state chief minister bhupesh baghel had laid the foundation of the arpa rejuvenation and riverbank augmentation work in april 2021 to clean the water body while developing the area however arpa river the lifeline of bilaspur is now claimed to be under the grip of sand mafias who are allegedly smuggling sand from the river under the guise of ongoing rejuvenation projectmahesh dubey the member of arpa development authority ada constituted by the cm in 2021 and activist prathmesh mishra have alleged that they have captured the illegal mining happening at night on their camera i have the video footages and photos of the mining of sand and its transportation by the mafias who have been doing it at night i have also complained about the issue to the district administration but no action has been taken yet the ada member said while sharing video and photos with toistate government has approved about rs 200 crore for river rejuvenation project but contractor is deliberately delaying work to enable sand mafias to smuggle sand under guise of rejuvenation project he said the contractor should use the sand in the construction from the sand ghaat authorized for the same he saidmishra said that river is situated between bilaspur city two barrages are being constructed at both ends of river to store water and between these barrages two bridges are constructed roads are also being constructed on banks of river the contractor is using the sand of the river in the construction work taking advantage of the ongoing work sand mafias are engaged in illegal sand mining from the river the sand is being excavated from near the pillars of the bridge posing threat to sustainability of bridge said mishra when contacted district collector sourabh kumar and mining officer dinesh mishra did not respond to the call