New sand policy to ban illegal mining comes into force in Hassan dist

Public should pay PWD by demand draft to buy sand

Addressing a news conference here on Thursday, he said steps had been taken to put an end to illegal sand lifting across the State. As per the new policy, heavy fine would imposed upon violators. The district administration has identified 31 where there are sand deposits on 341 acres.

 An estimated 9.56 lakh cubic meters of sand is expected to available from those places. In the first phase, they would allow sand lifting only in 16 places. Direct marketing of sand had been at six places and it would be sold through depots in ten other places.

Committee  

Singh said a committee and district-level licensing authority to monitor and control the sand lifting, have been constituted.The executive engineer of Public Works Department would be head of this committee.

People can buy the required quantity of sand by submitting a demand draft drawn in favour of Executive engineer, Public Works Department, who is also the head of sand monitoring committee. Then only the buyers would be allowed to purchase sand at 16 designated places. The rate would be fixed depending upon the cost of extraction and other charges. For instance, it is Rs 900 per cubic meter is charged for sand lifting in Arakalgud and Holenarasipur taluks and it is Rs 500 in Alur, Belur and Sakleshpur taluks.

Six persons would be appointed to monitor sand extraction and the sales in each place. Mostly, it would be outsourced soon. Tender process to outsource this job had been completed, he added.

The DC said permission would be given to buyers after producing the DDs. The quantity of supply, place, person, transportation place and timings would be mentioned in the permission letter.  The new sand mining policy would help maintaining transparency, improves revenue to the government as well as check overloading of sand. The revenue earned from sand lifting would be used on improvement of  rural roads. While 50 per cent of the revenue will be given for local Gram Panchayat, 40 per cent to PWD and 10 per cent to district administration.

Under the new sand policy, there was no provision for sale of seconds and stocking of sand. Illegal storage of sand attracts fine. However, those who have stocked had to obtain licence from the committee concerned for the transportation of the same.

Executive Engineer of Public Works Department Ramachandra,  Geologist Harish and Superintendent of Police Amith Singh were present.