Sand policy in Mysore dist; GPS for transporting vehicles

Speaking to media persons after holding a meeting with officials at the deputy commissioner’s office here on Tuesday, district in-charge minister S A Ramdas said sand will now be made available for everyone and anyone who needs it, if they simply submit an application and pay the required charges by demand draft to the district administration.

Applications will be distributed from November 18, and sand will be sold from November 25. Transporting lorries will bear four digit number issued by district administration, and will also be fitted with global positioning system (GPS) and buyers are free to transport sand in their own vehicles from the sand yard, with proper documentation issued by the district adminstration.

A helpline will also be set up, where details regarding availing sand can be obtained. Steps are being taken to curb the sand mafia, the minister said.
In the application that will be submitted to buy sand, the buyers will have to fill every detail sought, including aadhar number, address to which the sand is being transported, details of the construction activity and required quantity of sand, etc.

Separate team

A separate team will be formed to investigate into the irregularities. And, heavy penalty (of Rs 25,000) and jail sentence awaits those who are caught violating the norms.
Allaying fears about sand being unavailable in the future owing to people’s greed, the minister said district has enough sand to meet the needs till the next whole decade.

Tenders have been invited for two sand reserves which have been identified in the district. Sand would be extracted between 6 am and 6 pm during the day from about 4.25 cubic meter sand would be extracted from 96 acre land at Nilasoge on the banks of Cauvery, across nine blocks.

Similarly, 1.4 cubic meter sand has been extracted from 9.4 acre land on the banks of Kapila.

No mechanised vehicles would be used for sand lifting and also steps would be taken to ensure child labourers will not be employed in any manner, or step of sand extraction, the minister said.

Deputy commissioner P S Vastrad, zilla panchayat chief executive officer Satyavathy and others were present.