KOLHAPUR | Oct 19, 2015: Villagers and activits on Sunday claimed that delay in reclaiming the sand mining pit at Yerala River in Ambawade village of Satara district had caused the death of three children. The children, playing in the area, fell into the 8-feet deep pit and died on Saturday.
Angry villagers pelted stones at the revenue and police department officials vehicles that entered into village to assess the situation and conduct panchnama. Villagers have demanded that criminal charges be filled against the alleged contractor.
Villagers said the sand mining pit was closed in September but left unattended without reclamation. On Saturday, officials claimed the sand pit was legal and there were two such pits. Officials admitted that the pit was not reclaimed after the mining activity closed for the season in September.
"The process to fix the responsibility is going on. We have come to office for panchnama and other legal procedures required to investigate the incident. Once the panchnama gets completed, the charges will be fixed," Vivek Salunkhe, tehsildar of Vaduj, said.
Villagers claimed that the sand pit allocation was illegal since the gram sabha had not approved mining in Ambawade. Social activist Satyawan Kamane demanded that the tehsildar should be booked in the case since it is the responsibility of the revenue department to monitor if the sand pits have been closed properly after mining.
"We have decided to protest at tehsil office on Monday. We have been demanding closure of the sand mining in Yerala. At least now, the administration must consider our demand," he said.
Environmental activists blamed the implementation agencies for the deaths and urged the governments to adopt strict norms for minor minerals as well. "There is a norm to close the mine after use; however there is no provision to monitor if the reclamation has not done properly. We have strict guidelines for major minerals and almost negligible laws for the minor minerals such as sand," said Nana Khamkar, environmental activist from Karad.
Khamkar said that the government must reserve some of the amount in tender for reclamation only. He warned that unless the government takes urgent steps to monitor reclamation of sand pits, similar incidents could occur again.
Sumaira Abdulali, environmentalist and head of Mumbai-based Awaaz Foundation, had written a letter to union ministry of environment, forest and climate change (MoEF) on sand mining. In a reply to MoEFs proposed guidelines to sand mining in India, she wrote, there is no mention of mafias currently operating in India, the impediments they cause to successful implementation of sand mining laws and court orders or the need to control such mafias in these guidelines is mentioned.
Self-regulation has proved impossible in all past policies related to sand mining and this cannot be a goal of the guideline. Instead, effective regulatory mechanisms such as environmental police and full disclosure of raw materials at end use stage need to be formulated, she has said in her letter to MoEF.
"No sand miner follows the conditions set by governments. There is no restoration after mining. There are reports of many accidental deaths and injuries due to no reclamation at the mine site. Under such conditions, strict laws and stringent implementation can only restrict the illegal activities in the sand mine," Abdulali told TOI.
MAJOR SAND MINING SOURCE
Satara district is one of the major centres of sand business in Western Maharashtra, where more than 90 sand blocks are registered. The quartz quality of Krishna basin is considered as superior and is always in demand from the construction business in Pune, Mumbai and Kolhapur. Most of the riverbeds are around 50 km to 70 km from the Pune-Bengaluru national highway 4, which make it easy for the contractor to transport the material
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)