Hyderabad: The TS government has decided to mine sand from under-construction irrigation barrages in the state to meet the demand.
Minister for mines K.T. Rama Rao discussed this with collectors of Peddapally, Nagarkurnool, Nalgonda, Bhupalapalli and Mancherial districts on Tuesday.
“You can undertake mining to the extent required under the projects to meet the demand for sand but take stringent action against illegal sand quarrying,” Mr Rama Rao told collectors.
He wanted mining officials to launch “surgical strikes” against illegal sand quarrying by forming joint groups of police and revenue officials and undertake inspections.
“Our aim is to ensure availability of sand to the people and revenue to the government. Senior officials should visit the sand reaches and personally check the clusters. Seize all illegal sand dumps and vehicles used for transportation,” he added.
The minister said huge quantity of sand is available in submergence areas of under-construction barrages and there was a good scope to undertake mining operations.
“We have enough sand for public purposes and we can tap commercial markets now. We have sand worth crores. We delayed sand mining in Mid Manair before flow of water. We should avoid a repeat of such delays,” he said.
