VISAKHAPATNAM | Jan 04, 2016: Finance minister Yenamala Ramakrishnudu said tenders for sand mining would be called on January 8 and promised that the new mining policy would enable the common man to procure sand at a cheaper rate.

The minister, who conducted a meet with senior state cabinet ministers and IAS officers on the new sand mining policy in the city on Sunday, said as per the new policy 1.5 crore cubic metres of sand would be mined with a maximum price of Rs 550 per cubic metre (excluding transport charges). He further added that tenders would also be called to mine sand reaches in the traditional way.

The minister said the details of the new policy would be drafted and effective by January 7. He said the large scale corruption and smuggling involved in the sand mining industry in the state has led to a major policy shift, adding that the DWCRA groups had utterly failed to follow the rules so far because of which large amounts of sand mined was being siphoned off. He said that Rs 850 crore had been collected by the government from sand mining in the last 16 months.

Ramakrishnudu noted that another reason for the change in sand mining policy was because of the increase in demand due to infrastructure projects.

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)