Minister Madhwaraj orders Probe against two KDP officials
Manipal: Minister for Fisheries, Sports and Youth Affairs Pramod Madhwaraj directed the deputy commissioner of Udupi district to initiate an enquiry against officials of Mines and Geology department for filing case against two panchayat members. The Minister who was chairing the KDP meeting at the Zilla Panchayat, Udupi directed the deputy commissioner to initiate action after Byndoor MLA Gopal Poojary said that two of the people’s representatives were wrongly booked for voicing their concern against illegal sand mining.
The voice of the people’s representatives who speak on sand mining has been silenced. The officials of mines and geology department are working without following the guidelines issued by the government, added MLC Pratap Chandra Shetty. Deputy Commissioner who intervened said that an enquiry will be initiated against the officials.
Gopal Poojary said that payments for maintenance of vented dams are credited while the work is pending. The vouchers presented are paid but the vented dams which are constructed for storage of water and also prevention of saline water entering into fresh water are still to be fitted with wooden planks. If the wooden planks are not fixed within the stipulated time, the farmers and others will face severe problems.
Pramod Madhwaraj also directed the Chief Executive Officer Priyanka Mary Francis to issue a notice to the Assistant Executive Engineer monitoring RMSA buildings. RMSA building construction has stopped and the engineers are delaying the construction work. When the question was raised about RMSA building the AEE was absent, Minister asked the CEO to take him to task by serving him a notice.
The geologist said that PWD department was procuring sand from 4 blocks. 125 loads of sand has been stored, the people and the government agencies can make use of it said the PWD Engineer. There is a government order permitting interstate sand supply, Minister said that since Udupi comes under the eco-sensitive zone, the model sand code will allow locals to procure sand manually. While framing the sand mining code, sand procured from the district will be used only for the district.
The PWD engineer said that 1 cubic meter sand load will cost Rs 960 and 6 cubic meter sand load will cost Rs 5760 which will be 10 tonne.
Gopal Poojary said that the Forest and Wild Life department has been putting hurdles for the development work without sanctioning the work. DFO said that all works are sanctioned and it is the responsibility of the departments to upload necessary documents on the online portal of forest department within the stipulated time.
Secretary in-charge to Udupi district Maheshwar Rao IAS said that the departments should follow up the necessary approvals sent to state headquarters.
MLC Kota Srinivas Poojary, ZP Vice President Sheela K Shetty, Nominated Members of KDP, District Superintendent of Police and others were present.
