Bengaluru: The House committee on illegal sand mining headed by Dr S. Rafeek Ahmed, submitted an interim report to the Legislature on Friday recommending that the government take steps to excavate sand from all available sand deposit sources in order to stop illegal sand mining completely.
The report added that the state government should set up sand selling depots which should be controlled by Mysuru Minerals Limited Corporation (MSIL) to contain sand price which has skyrocketed due to private players charging heavily.
The committee said that MSIL should set-up a dedicated website, exclusively to sell sand to customers, with grading of sand and price for the sand to be included. “All the depots should be connected on-line in order to stop pilferage of sand by these depot authorities,” the report advocated.
The committee came down heavily on the functioning of the PWD department and its failure to implement the sand mining policy - 2011. "The PWD officials confided before this committee that they were already overburdened with work, hence they could not do justice in implementing the policy in toto,” the committee said.
The committee also advised the state government to take steps to simplify mining operations in north Karnataka by allowing mining of Basalt stone which is available in abundance in this region. “Basalt stone mining is best suited for production of M-Sand, the state government should have already taken steps to set-up M-Sand units in these regions which could have helped bring down sand prices,” the committee felt.
The committee added that the state government should extend its assistance by subsiding energy and providing tax free and interest free loans in order to set up the M-Sand units in north-Karnataka.
Download the all new Deccan Chronicle app for Android and iOS to stay up-to-date with latest headlines and news stories in politics, entertainment, sports, technology, business and much more from India and around the world.
