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Sand mining will be banned in CRZ area of Dakshina Kannada district for two months from June 15 to facilitate breeding of fish during monsoon, said Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim. 

Chairing a monsoon preparatory meeting here on Monday, he instructed the Mangaluru City Corporation officials, tahsildars and PWD officials to direct contractors to stock sufficient sand to carry out construction activities during the ban. 

“The Karnataka State Environment Impact Assessment Authority had given an NOC to carry out sand extraction in 19 blocks of the CRZ area. As per the conditions laid down by the Authority, sand mining will be banned from June 15 to August 15,” said the deputy commissioner.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Kumar said that eight teams have been constituted at the taluk-level to check illegal extraction and transportation of sand. If there is any complaint of illegal sand transportation, then the officer and his or her team will be held responsible, he warned.

“Cases have been registered against 74 vehicles transporting sand illegally in Mangaluru. The police have written to the RTO to suspend the licences of the vehicles. Accordingly, the licences of 30 vehicles have been suspended temporarily, for one month,” said DCP Shantharaju. 

Team constituted
Corporation Executive Engineer Gururaj Maralihalli said that a monsoon team has been constituted in each ward of the Corporation limits to carry out emergency work related to clearing of trees, facilitating the easy flow of water in drains and shifting of the people to the safer areas during floods. 

“The work on desilting of 150 stormwater drains is in progress and will be completed in the next two to three days. Each team will have six workers, supervisor, junior engineer and assistant executive engineer. A night team is also constituted, with eight labourers, one pickup vehicle and equipment. The Corporation has set up a control room – with contact number 0824-2220306 and toll free number155313 – to be contacted in case of any emergency during monsoon,” said the executive engineer.

Flood-prone areas
Mangaluru Tahsildar said that 40 flood-prone areas have been identified in Mangaluru taluk. Drains have been cleared and measures have been taken to face eventualities during monsoon, the tahsildar added.

The Mescom official said that a monsoon team has been constituted – in each sub-division of Mescom in Mangaluru and Puttur – to attend to emergency services during monsoon. The team will help in clearing uprooted poles and trees. Each sub-station has been given a vehicle to reach the spot immediately after receiving the complaint. 

District Health Officer Dr Ramakrishna said that a teams have been constituted at Uppinangady, Kadaba, Kudupu, Surathkal, Ullal and Bantwal with a doctor and health assistant to treat people in case of flood. Handbills have been distributed to create awareness on communicable diseases. 

The deputy commissioner said that a fence should be erected around the laterite stone quarry pits near the schools on a priority basis.
DH News Service