Seventeen coal-laden trucks were seized and FIR registered against seven persons for alleged illegal transportation of coal in Hazaribag district, official sources said.
Deputy Commissioner of Hazaribag, Ravi Shankar Shukla, had directed the sub-divisional officer, Hazaribag Sadar and the district transport officer to conduct raids and initiate action against persons indulging in illegal coal trade.
The directive came after the deputy commissioner had received complaints about hundreds of trucks illegally carrying coal, daily, from Tandwa and Barkagaon.
Accordingly, the SDO Aditya Ranjan and DTO Prabhat Kumar along with the Officer-In-Charge of the Katkumdag police Station, Samir Tirkey set up a check-post at Katkumdag.
During the drive, they detected gross irregularities including overloading and driving of heavy vehicles by teenaged drivers without driving licenses, the police said.