No scarcity of Sand in District – DC
Mangaluru: “There is enough sand in the district for construction work. No scarcity of Sand in District. According to the Mines and Geology department, we have identified 19 sand blocks, based on that the district administration has given permission in April, 2016. We have even given permission to extract sand by renewing the permits. We have not given new permits to anyone. Those extracting the sand should follow the conditions”, said the deputy commissioner Dr Jagadeesha in a press meet held at the DC office here on October 1.
Addressing the mediapersons DC Dr Jagadeesha said that the district administration had imposed a ban on sand extraction only for 2 months to facilitate fish breeding. Rest of the months, the permit holders can extract sand by following the rules and regulations. We have instructed all the 425 permit holders not to store sand. After issuing notices some permit holders were coming to us asking for the relaxation of rules. They said that they will follow all the rules and conditions. The boats should be registered and only small traditional boats should be used. While extracting sand one should extract it manually. Even loading the sand should be done manually.
We did not give any license on seniority. If they have three boats they can extract sand by following the procedures. We have enough supply of sand with the PWD, but now only 25% of the sand has been used. We will be fixing the rate for sand, and if anyone charges more than fixed rate we will cancel their license. In this regard, people should co-operate with the district administration and inform if they are being charged more than the fixed rate.
Whoever extracts sand they should not violate the CRZ norms. They should install CCTV cameras which should be connected to the district control room. The sand should not be extracted, loaded, unloaded or stored 250 meters downstream and upstream at any bridges.
PWD has a stock of 1 lakh cubic meters of sand at the Non CRZ zone but there is only 25% demand. The mines and geology department will provide sand at a reasonable rate. An officer will be appointed to take care of all the 19 sand blocks. The timings for sand extraction will be from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm on the identified sand blocks. We have given permits for 425 people, on their capacity they can extract sand following the conditions laid for sand extraction.
When asked about the allegation that the government is promoting M-sand, Dr Jagadeesha said that regular sand is not produced every day it takes about 65 years to form. We are fortunate that we are getting sand, it will cease to exist one day or the other day, depending on the use. The State Government policy is to promote M-sand because it is considered as greener than the regular sand. Yes, M-sand cannot be used for all kinds of work like plastering but it can be used for making bricks and other work. M-sand also cannot meet the total requirement of the consumers, people should be happy. More availability of M-sand will bring the cost to a reasonable level. When people are drawing conclusions they should think before commenting. How can someone create confusion? If we stop the sand extraction they say that the District administration is behind it and if sand extraction begins then they say that the district administration has joined hands with the sand mafia. People blame the district administration for everything.