As floods in all major rivers made sand mining difficult, the government has resolved to concentrate on streams of 1st to 3rd order along with de-casting of patta lands to ease the shortage.
Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy issued instructions to this effect during a review meeting on the New Sand Mining Policy on Wednesday.
Referring to a report submitted by the A.P. Mineral Development Corporation (nodal agency for operating sand reaches) recently, Mr. Jagan said there were floods in the Godavari at Dowleswaram for the last 55 days, the Krishna was in spate at Prakasam barrage for 71 days and a record rainfall of 400-500 mm was recorded in the Tungabhadra dam region.
Other rivers such as Vamsadhara and Penna were in spate too and more heavy rain was forecast in the coming days. It has, therefore, been decided to concentrate on the streams and de-casting of the patta lands.
Besides, as stated by the Director of Mines and Geology (DMG), the excavation and transportation of sand from the streams would be governed as per Rule 23(1) (a) of WALTA Act, 2004. The transportation would be for local use by means of bullock carts and tractors within the district concerned.
The procedure
The DMG has suggested the following procedure for excavation and disposal of sand from the 1st to 3rd order streams, which will be reviewed after three months: The District Collectors will furnish the village-wise lists of 1st to 3rd order streams to the village secretariats, the consumers will have to pay the amount to the Government account at the village secretariats concerned and the in-charges of village secretariats will appoint village volunteers at the sand reaches for supervision of the sand operations and maintaining registers for number of trips and quantities of sand transported. The in-charges of village secretariats will issue transit forms (Form-S 3) with a validity period of 48 hours and duplicate copies to consumers for transporting the sand. The transit forms will lapse irrespective of its usage after 48 hours and no refund or revalidation of the transit forms will be considered. Transportation of sand by tractors will not be allowed beyond 20 km radius of the local areas. Sand should not be used for any commercial purpose and its use is to be limited to local needs. Consumers are not supposed to stock sand beyond their personal needs.
