Minister for Mines and Geology Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy said the government was geared up to implement the new sand policy from September 5 and that the Collectors were instructed to delegate their powers to issue permits for selling sand to MROs in the interim period to ease scarcity. Mr. Ramachandra Reddy said construction activity in the State requires two crore cubic metres of sand, but only 94 lakh cubic metres was available due to the plundering of the mineral during the TDP regime and failure to maintain adequate stocks.
Tender notification
Answering a question by TDP members Gadde Rama Mohan, Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar, Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu, K. Atchannaidu and Mantena Ramaraju as to what action did the government take to mitigate the impact of the sand scarcity on the livelihood of construction workers, in the Assembly on Monday, he said a tender notification was issued for implementing the sand policy with August 9 as the last date and tenders called for labour contract agreement.
The tender notifications were hosted on the website of the A.P. Mineral Development Corporation which was engaged as the agency for auctioning the sand and on the government’s e-procurement portal.
By September 5, the government would streamline the entire system for which the groundwork was being done meticulously, he asserted.
Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy said there was no problem for bona fide builders during this transition phase and since the sand was locked up with the mafia under the TDP government, it would take some time to take it back and make a fresh beginning.
TDP member Gadde Rama Mohan (Vijayawada East) said notwithstanding the government’s claims, sand was being charged at ₹4,600 per tractor and a whopping ₹12,000 in the black market.
The government should therefore come up with the new policy at the earliest and by doing so put an end to the woes of construction workers. He suggested to the government to make sand available at ₹1,000 or ₹1,500 per tractor so that construction activity would pick up again.
