Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs T.B. Jayachandra has said that natural sand can be imported from the Philippines and Indonesia. Anybody can import sand under the open general licence to meet the demand of the construction industry.
At a meeting in the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Tumakuru on Saturday, the minister stated that the cost, including transportation, would be around ₹1,000 per tonne.
The government is also promoting M-sand, of which there are 14 manufacturing units in Tumakuru district. Mr. Jayachandra directed Deputy Commissioner K.P. Mohan Raj to close down units that do not manufacture the sand according to the technical specifications and to crack down on manufacturers who cheat people by supplying dust in the name of M-sand.
Filtered sand is banned in the State. He told the officers concerned to create awareness on how filtered sand can be dangerous for the construction of buildings and to promote M-sand instead.
Stones available in Tumakuru, Ramanagara and Chikkaballapura districts are suitable for manufacturing M-sand. Officers have to to ensure that M-sand manufacturing units install seismometers to monitor the intensity of blasts made to break rocks using explosives.
Mining-affected areas
Mr. Jayachandra said that providing drinking water to mining-affected taluks in the district, including Chikkanayakanahalli and Gubbi, should be top priority. He also wants construction and repair of anganwadi and school buildings to be taken up in these taluks.
Zilla Panchayat CEO K.G. Shantharam was among those present at the meeting.
