Extraction of sand from patta land or privately owned agricultural land in Nanjangud near here, which is expected to provide relief to the sand-starved construction industry, could start in about 40 days’ time, according to Deputy Commissioner C. Shikha.
She told The Hindu that owners of about 12.5 acres out of the 40 acres of land identified by the government in Toremavu and Himmavu villages of Nanjangud taluk are likely to enter into an agreement with the authorities on Monday for handing over their land for extraction of sand.
The owners will be handing over the land to the Mysuru District Sand Monitoring Committee, headed by the Deputy Commissioner and comprising officials of various departments like Revenue, PWD, Mines and Geology, Police etc, which will in turn entrust the task of sand extraction, storage and distribution to the PWD.
Next, the tenders for extraction of sand by qualified persons will be floated. “Simultaneously, we will be obtaining the environmental clearance. The tender will be given a time of 30 days. In about one month to 40 days, we should be able to start extracting sand”, she added.
It may be recalled here that the government had in March this year exempted the 40 acres of patta land in Nanjangud from the provisions of the Karnataka Minor Minerals Concession Rules 2011, which forbid extraction of sand from patta land, as a “special case” to tide over sand scarcity in Mysuru in the wake of the Supreme Court order banning extraction of sand from the riverbed.
Though district administration had sought permission for mining in patta land under Rule 32, which provides of extraction of sand by the pattadar or the land owners themselves, Ms. Shikha said the government prohibited them and instead directed PWD to extract the sand and pay the owners.
“Several land owners were averse to the idea. However, we have managed to convince owners of 12.5 acres of land so far and we will begin extraction of sand soon”, she said. To a question, Ms. Shikha said the land owners can bid for the tenders to be floated by PWD for extraction provided they are qualified.
Meanwhile, officials also attributed the delay to establishing the ownership records of the land identified for sand extraction as well as the recently concluded gram panchayat polls. Before securing the mandatory environmental clearance from State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), a map of the identified area with GPS is to be prepared.
