Sand policy: Districts administration seek additional funds

The much-hyped new Sand Policy which was supposed to come into effect from April 1 has not been implemented because of teething problems in almost all the districts.

At a meeting chaired by the chief secretary in Bangalore on Tuesday, the DCs’ also put forth the idea of outsourcing some of the works till the permanent facilities were put in place. Besides, the government is yet to frame rules and regulations without which the implementation of the new Sand Policy did not have any weight. As per the policy, the Department of Public Works will have to do three jobs-monitoring, storing and selling to general public at the rate fixed by the government. However, the PWD is not ready to take up the new task and it may require another two months to start its new assignment.

Deputy Commissioner of Mysore District Harsha Gupta who participated in today’s meeting, told Deccan Herald that the chief secretary was explained in detail the difficulties to be faced by the districts administration in dealing with illegal sand extractors without men and machinery. Any amount of raids would not yield results except punishing culprits. Of late, sand extraction has turned out to be a big mafia and it has posed a threat to the district administration.

He said to effectively implement the new policy the district administration needs to set up 11 new check posts in the district with four to five police constables at each check posts.

In addition to this, they need to have four to five mobile squads. According to rough estimate, they should have 100-150 additional staff, equipment and machinery to put everything in the place.

All these required resources which have to be released by the government. The government has planned installation of the close circuit cameras at all the check posts, storing yards and other places to monitor trade. The PWD has invited tenders for these electronic gadgets which may take at least one to one and a half months. Without the systems are in place it was not at all possible to streamline sand extraction trade in the district.

Gupta said the district administration is toying with the idea of using the services of private security guards as getting the cops for this job at this point, will be difficult. But again there is problem of giving them salary for which the district administration requires funds. Once the system was put in place it should be transparent and not give room for more corruption, he added.