Illegal sand mining curbed

“As many as 217 vehicles involved in illegal transportation of sand have been seized and a fine of Rs 16.43 lakh recovered. A sum of Rs 2.64 lakh has been collected by auctioning the sand being transported illegally,” the DC said at a meeting of Sand Mining Monitoring Taskforce here on Friday.

Asserting that illegal sand mining in the district has been contained completely, the DC revealed that the High Court on Oct 21 stayed the government notification dated Sept 24 pertaining to sand transportation. In view of this, the licences obtained if any for sand mining will not be considered and the ban will be enforced in toto. He explained the guidelines issued by the High Court on shifting of stone crushers and directed the officers to remove the crushing units to safe zones. He instructed the tahsildars of respective taluks to identify two safe zones in each taluk and submit a report on such locations within a month. The authorities of Mines and Geology Department and Revenue Department were told to monitor use of explosives in mining.

SP Ravindra Prasad, Additional Deputy Commissioner G S Nayak, Assistant Commissioner G V Seenappa, CPI Shivakumar, senior scientist of Mines and Geology Department K R Veerabhadraiah were present in the meeting.