Priyank Kharge, Minister for Tourism and IT/BT, on Thursday directed the Superintendent of Police, Vinayak Patil, to seize all sand blocks set up on river beds across the district and book officials of the Public Works Department if they fail to follow the guidelines issued by State government to prevent illegal sand mining.
While chairing a review meeting, Mr. Kharge, who is also the district in-charge, came down heavily on officials of PWD, Nirmithi Kendra, Mines and Geology, District Urban Development Cell, Revenue Department, and Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd. (KRIDL) for delays in completing development projects. Officials of Nirmithi Kendra and KRIDL blamed PWD officials for the non-completion of anganwadi centres and drainage works in time, saying sand was not being supplied in adequate quantities.
Barrage of questions
As the officials tried to shift responsibility from one to another, Mr. Kharge fired a series of questions to PWD officials: “Is the PWD working under a separate republic? What prevented you from supplying sand for government projects? What action have you taken so far against illegal sand extraction? Why didn’t you install CCTV cameras and weighbridges near sand blocks? Why aren’t you following guidelines?”
When the PWD officials remained silent, he directed Mr. Patil to seize sand blocks if the officials fail to implement norms before next Thursday. He also gave all the officials to one last chance to solve the issue by joining hands and cooperating with one another.
Earlier, Guru Patil and Raja Venkatappa Naik, MLAs from Shahapur and Surpur, asked officials to ensure that projects are not stopped owing to shortage of sand.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kharge also charged the Panchayat Raj engineering officials of not implementing projects on approach roads, anganwadi buildings, etc. even after getting administrative and technical approval nearly one-and-a-half years ago.
Several roads such as the approach road from Shahapur to Anabi village, the main road in Kembhavi to Goudigera village, and others were sanctioned under the Hyderabad Karnataka Area Development Board (HKADB) in 2014-15. A sum of Rs. 77 lakh was earmarked for them.
Mr. Guru Patil, intervening in the discussion, said, “The people living in the backward areas are dying without facilities and you (officials) are looting here.”
Minister asks SP to seize sand blocks
if officials fail to implement norms
by next Thursday
