A 200-metre-long embankment that had been illegally built by land grabbers to divert the flow of a river that passes through the southwestern parts of Siliguri was dismantled by a team from the Jalpaiguri district administration on Friday.

The embankment, administrative sources said, had been raised to facilitate the creation of stretches of dry land on the riverbank for mining of construction materials such as sand, stones and pebbles. The land grabbers and illegal miners have joined hands to run the trade, the sources said.

“They wanted to use the embankment to divert the river so that more land would be available on the banks. They had started extracting construction materials such as sand and stones from the site without permission,” a source said.

The embankment was built on the Sahu river between Thakurnagar and Jaldumur, two localities that come under Rajganj block of Jalpaiguri district.

“The land grabbers had also installed an iron bridge illegally over the Sahu river a few days ago so that they could sell land taken over unlawfully on both banks of the river,” the source said.

The administration had earlier removed the bridge, which had also caught chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s attention.

During a virtual meeting last week, she had instructed the police and administration to take steps against land mafia who are into illegal extraction of sand and pebbles.

Pankaj Konar, the BDO of Rajganj block, said they were identifying government land across the block.

“Officials from the police, irrigation, land and land reforms departments and the district administration are jointly conducting raids against land grabbers and illegal miners to prevent any attempt to encroach on government or private plots,” Konar said.

The Siliguri Metropolitan Police has launched a drive to arrest all those involved in shabby land deals and illegal mining of sand and pebbles.

At the meeting, Mamata had instructed Gaurav Sharma, the commissioner of police, to go all out against such culprits.

“After the chief minister’s instructions, 68 persons have been arrested so far. Our officers posted in different police stations under the commissionerate are conducting raids regularly,” a senior police officer said.