Sand supply to resume today

After talks with Ashok and senior government officials, Federation of Lorry Owners and Agents Associations President G R Shanmugappa told media persons that the government had agreed to auction the remaining about 600 blocks for sand mining. Now, only 273 blocks had been auctioned.  Sand supply would resume from Friday.

The court had stayed issuing of fresh permits for sand mining. Henceforth, the truckers would extract sand against the royalty permits. Ashok said he had given instructions to the officers to commence the auction process by December 25.

The government would soon come out a policy to streamline extraction and transportation of sand. The permits to be issued after auction were of temporary in nature. Once the new policy was in place, the permits would cease.

Ashok said the government would take strong measures to check transportation of filtered sand as it was not good for construction activities.

Taluk-level task force

A taluk-level task force would be constituted to take action against the people extracting filter sand.

The task force would be headed by the tahsildar and consist of officers of Departments of Mines and Geology, Police and Environment.

Harassment by police staff was one of the complaints by the Federation. The minister said as per the judgment of the Karnataka High Court the police had no right to register a theft case against sand carrying trucks. However, they had authority to check vehicle permits and driving licences, Ashok said.