Date | Dec 12, 2017:

It appears that the government’s insistence on sand mining licensees paying royalty at the time of the renewal of permit is paying off, as permit holders have increasingly been acquiescing to the requirement.

A senior official from the department of mines on Monday said that sand mining permit holders have agreed to pay royalty in advance (during the time of renewal) after the initial resistance to the precondition.

Renewal of licenses is now in progress and December 30 is the deadline set by the department.

“Permit holders who do not come forward to renew by the month-end will have their licences cancelled,” the senior official said.

“In the beginning extractors were not willing to pay royalty in advance, but now several of them are coming forward for renewal,” said the official.

The advance royalty is calculated on around 192 working days and the royalty fee remains unchanged at Rs 41.20 per cubic metre.

The sand mining season resumed on October 1, but the department of mines decided not to renew the permits of sand extractors owing to the detection of large-scale defaults in the royalty.

A total of 441 permits for sand mining had been issued during the previous season – from October 1 2016 to June 2017 – for a period of one year. The government had collected Rs 66.6 lakh as royalty but it was considered as meager. Several permit holders were suspected of defaulting on the royalty.

While accepting applications for renewal this season, the mining department is also implementing measures to monitor extraction and curb illegal sand mining.

The department is likely to insist on radio frequency identification tag for vehicles transporting sand.

Using RIFD tag a unique number will be given to every vehicle.

“If another vehicle uses the same number we get an alert message, which helps find illegal sand mining trucks,” pointed out the senior official.

The department may also come out with a new sand mining policy aimed at streamlining excavation and increasing revenue for the government. The policy will focus on keeping a balance between permit holders’ income and the benefit to the state coffers.

The policy is not expected to tinker with present sand mining zones or the royalty. Its purpose will be to minimise illegal sand mining and reduce damage to the environment as much as possible. The proposed policy is also likely to touch upon the sand coming in from outside the state and may suggest surveillance on imports from other states.

Permits for sand mining have been issued in five rivers – Chapora, Mandovi, Terekhol, Macazana and Rivona.

(Source: http://www.navhindtimes.in/)