Online permits to be issued for sand transport

As a measure to monitor the transport of sand in the district and to prevent illegal mining, the department of Mines and Geology, in collaboration with Police department, will soon launch a mechanism to issue online permits for lorries transporting sand.

The mechanism will be first launched on a pilot basis in Mysore district, following which it will be extended to other parts of the State.

Currently, a software for the same is being developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC), and the system is expected to go online before the beginning the next mining season in the month of November.

Abhinav A Khare, Superintendent of Police, said that the software will issue permits to lorries transporting sand on a first come first serve basis.

With this, complaints of bias in issuing permits to sand lorries would be solved.

“The software will also be equipped to track the movement of lorries, which have already been equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS). In case of any movement of these lorries, without prior permit, we will be able to locate them and take actions if necessary,” he said.

Permit demand

He said that though 200 permits were being issued on a daily basis for the transport of sand, demand for permits from lorry owners peaked at 1,500.

“They demand permits to supply sand everyday. When demands are not met, they resort to transporting sand illegally,” he said.

With the new online queue system, each lorry will receive 10-12 permits every month, cutting down on illegal supply.

Raids

He said that teams of District Armed Reserves personnel, consisting of 16 personnel are deputed to monitor the illegal transport and hoarding of sand.

“After the teams were formed, we have been able to control illegal mining and hoarding. Teams are changed every 15 days, so as to reduce collusion between the personnel and sand transporters,” he said.

Among the taluks in the district, illegal sand mining was highest in T Narsipur taluk, owing to the availability of high quality sand in the region.

Sand committee meeting

Noting that sand illegally mined was being transported either to Bangalore or Mysore, he said that Sand Monitoring Authority of the district have decided to set up three checkpoints with weigh-bridges.

Land belonging to Public Works Department has been identified for the same.

Checkpoints are expected to come up between Talkad-Bangalore Road and after the new bridge at T Narsipur, he said.

Illegal mining is not practised during rainy season.

However, illegally hoarded sand will be transported to various parts during the season. Police department is in a look out for such movement of sand.

He said that sand which was hoarded illegally, worth Rs one crore was seized by the district police in raids conducted during the past month.