MANGALURU | Jul 27, 2016: Dakshina Kannada district administration has made it mandatory that sand mining should be carried out manually from next season onwards. A district task force committee headed by the deputy commissioner has auctioned sand bars for Rs 86 lakh and the royalty expected from 25,000 truckloads of sand is Rs 1.5 crore. Sand extraction will begin in 19 sand blocks of CRZ and 19 in non-CRZ from August 15 after the monsoon ban.

The district administration has included manual extraction as the first condition. Licence holders should not use bulldozers, earthmovers and dredging machines while carrying out sand mining on river beds. Similarly, mechanized boats also will not be allowed to carry out sand mining. Licence holders also should not use machines while loading sand to trucks and tippers.

As per the CRZ rules, sand mining is allowed using traditional boats only. Accordingly, traditional boats of 12-meter length can only be used and they should be registered with the department of mines and geology. Sand extraction should not commence before 6am and no activities allowed after 6pm. Transportation of sand is allowed in trucks of six wheels only. The district administration has also made it mandatory for all trucks that transport sand to have GPS in it. GPS installation should be completed in all vehicles within a month.

Mines and geology department deputy director (in-char ge) K S Nagendrappa said the licence holders will be permanently blacklisted if they are found using machines to extract and load sand. "Action under IPC Sections 464, 465, 468, 470, 471, 420 and 379, provisions of Karnataka Minor Minerals Concession Rules 1994 and Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 will be taken if licence holders violate rules," he said.

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