High-level panel to regulate sand-mining

The Kalpathy river in Palakkad is covered by plants, including water hyacinth. One of the major threats being faced by the river is illegal sand-mining.

The government has constituted a high-level committee for riverbank protection and regulation of sandmining.

The panel, chaired by the Revenue Minister, will scrutinise and approve the schemes proposed by the district-level expert committees set up under the Kerala Protection of River Banks and Regulation of Sand Mining Act, 2001. The Revenue Secretary has been nominated the convener of the committee and the Law Secretary, Land Revenue Commissioner, Director, National Centre for Earth Science Studies, ADGP B. Sandhya, Chief Engineer, Irrigation, K.A. Joshi, environmental scientists K.Soman and Biju Longinos and eco-activists R. Ajayan and P. Jinimon as members.