Mysuru | April 06, 2016: At the next cabinet meeting, the new sand policy will be passed and this will enable recruitment of 432 personnel to fill up various vacant posts in the department, said mines and geology minister Vinay Kulkarni.
Kulkarni, who was here for the department's review meeting, said, "Once the new policy is implemented, the sand issues will be sorted out. The problem of sand scarcity has come to my notice and I have discussed it with officials. We have identified 549 sand blocks across the state, of which just 200 have been auctioned. The remaining blocks will be auctioned soon. Across the state, there are 86 Manufactured Sand units. Every year, the state requires 28 million tonnes of sand but we get 12 million tonnes of M Sand while 6-7 million tonnes of natural sand. There is a shortage of 6-7 million tonnes which in the days will be met through the new sand policy and encouraging more M Sand units."
"To curb illegal practices, we'll be going in for open auction and pass will be given online, checkposts will be strengthened and more CCTV cameras will be installed and the proceedings in all districts will be monitored in Bengaluru. We have examined the sand policies of Gujarat and Maharashtra and we have framed our policy.
The policy also contains stringent measures and action for those who provide substandard quality of M Sand. A separate squad will be set up to check the quality of M Sand. If an existing unit is ready to double its M sand capacity, we'll give it permission. There was no sand policy and hence there was hurdles. Once the policy comes into force, all issues will be resolved," added Vinay.
"There is a lot of patta land in Mysuru and this brought to my notice a few months ago. This has been included in the sand policy," he added. He took officials to task for not following through on this. "There are 12,000 to 13,000 files in the department. You officials should keep following up. Just sending the proposal and keeping quiet won't work," he added.
Though there is a drilling engineer, there is no drilling machine in the department. Kulkarni was surprised when officials brought this to his notice. They said the machine was very old and could not be used. The minister also assured that he'd send officials to inspect alleged illegal mining in Chamarajanagar district.
(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)