State Government’s new sand policy will spur illegal extraction, alleges Ramanatha Rai

Mangaluru, 27 August 2020 [Fik/News Sources]: The  State government move to  entrust the sand extraction responsibility to the Karnataka State Mining Corporation  as part of its new sand policy would instigate illegal sand extraction while also hitting hard traditional sand mining, alleged former minister Ramanatha Rai.

He was addressing press persons at the Congress office on August 26, Wednesday. Rai said as of now no sand shortage is noticed as unauthorised sand mining is being held unabatedly. Sand extraction is also underway in some new non-CRZ blocks, he said.

He recalled how during the Congress tenure, the government had allowed sand extraction under CRZ by  availing permission from the Union Environment Department. As many as  105  people who  had sand extraction licence prior to 2011 were provided permit  on the basis of seniority by the then DC. As for the rest  in non CRZ areas sand extraction was allowed  through tender cum auctioning  process.  This has even helped the government reap crores of revenues. However, the BJP government policies  will only benefit big entrepreneurs, he said.

The unauthorised sand extraction underway was incurring losses to the state treasury, he said adding in the year 2020-21, the government had earned  a revenue of Rs 1.54 crore upto July. He also  gave details  of the earnings of  the government through sand mining  during the previous years which was significantly  higher. Rai said in 2013-14, the government had earned Rs 3.13 crore, while the  revenue earned in the subsequent years upto 2019-20 stood at Rs 3.47 crores, Rs 5.11 crores, Rs 3.15 crores, Rs 3.49 crores , Rs 4.08 crores and Rs 5.25 crores respectively.

Former mayors Harinath, Shashidhar Hegde, Kavitha Sanil and other party leaders were present.