Panchayat Raj and Rural Development (PR&RD) Minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy has said the Director of Mines and Geology has written letters to eight Central government agencies/PSUs requesting them to undertake the operation of sand reaches in the State and two of them, NMDC and MSTC, have come forward.
This is according to the revised policy to hand over the excavation, storage and sale of sand to Central agencies/PSUs on terms prescribed by the State government.
Addressing media persons at the CM’s camp office along with Civil Supplies Minister Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao on Thursday, Mr. Ramachandra Reddy said operation of the sand reaches would be entrusted to one of the above two Central PSUs which would quote a lower amount for their service.
The decision to hand over the reaches to Central agencies/PSUs was taken to eliminate the scope for ‘sand mafia, which corrupted the whole system when TDP was in power’. The TDP government’s free sand policy had, in fact, resulted in massive illegal trade in sand, which took the mineral beyond the reach the common people, Mr. Ramachandra Reddy observed.
