Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister for Fisheries, Youth Empowerment and Sports, said on Friday that the State government would be urged to allow removal of excess sand in non-Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) areas from rivers as they had water throughout the year.
He was chairing a meeting of the tri-monthly Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) at the zilla panchayat hall here.
Raising the issue, Gopal Poojary, MLA, said there were several vented dams in his Byndoor Assembly constituency where excess sand in the rivers was not being removed. This was affecting the vented dams and their water storage capacity, he said.
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Priyanka Mary Francis, Deputy Commissioner, said no sand blocks had been identified in the district because the State government had not given its nod and environmental clearance was needed for it.
Mr. Madhwaraj said that it was because rivers have water throughout the year in the three Coastal districts, the legislators of this region were demanding a separate sand policy for these three districts. An officer from the Department from Mines and Geology said that a decision on the non-CRZ areas was likely to be taken in February-March.
Finally, Mr. Madhwaraj directed that a resolution be passed to urge the State government to allow removal of sand in non-CRZ areas. Sand was available in Udupi and Karkala taluks. All attempts would be made to make sand available in Kundapur taluk also, he said.
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Road accidents
Sanjeev Patil, Superintendent of Police, said that the number of road accidents which took place in the Hejmady-Kundapur stretch of National Highway 66 since the widening works began were: 458 accidents in 2011; 476 in 2012; 490 in 2013; 428 in 2014; 489 in 2015; 496 in 2016; and 358 accidents till September, 2017.
This was because the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) neither consulted the district administration nor district police before preparing the detailed project report. Nor had it taken into consideration the increase in vehicle density, he said.
Mr. Poojary said that the widening work of Kundapur-Shiroor stretch of NH 66 was haphazard and of poor quality. He demanded to know why the NHAI had stopped the underpass work in Navunda.
Mr. Madhwaraj directed the NHAI not to slow down or stop the underpass work. Ms. Francis said that a meeting would be held soon at Byndoor to listen to public grievances over the widening works.