As many as 12 permit holders started removing excess sand from the sand bars in the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) areas in Udupi district on Tuesday.
Priyanka Mary Francis, Deputy Commissioner, said as of Tuesday, 33 applicants had collected their permits for removal of excess sand, from the District Mines and Geology Office here. The rest of the permit holders had not been able to show action. The district administration would seek an explanation from them, she said.
Earlier in the day, K. Vidya Kumari, Additional Deputy Commissioner, said the permit holders had starting removing excess sand at Uppoor, Moodutonse, and Harady.
It may be recalled that the district administration had on December 11 given a deadline of a week to sand permit holders to remove excess sand in the five sand bars in the district, failing which it had warned of taking action against them. This deadline expired on December 17. Raghupati Bhat, MLA, had led an eight-long-day dharna in October and demanded that the district administration provide permits to all the previous 170 permit holders at one go so that they could all start removing sand.
