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Udupi : The members of the construction sector and others with all the political parties members along with all MLAs and MLCs of the district would participate in an indefinite agitation in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here from October 25, if the sand removal problems not resolved by then, said Raghupathy Bhat, local MLA.

Addressing media persons at Udupi Press Club on Friday, 19^th October, Raghupathy Bhat said that the district administration not interested in solving the severe problem of sand removal from Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) and non-CRZ areas in Udupi district.

He said that even though Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had ordered that sand should be made available from October 15, it had not been implemented still in the district. Chief Minister as well as district in-charge Minister Jayamala had responded positively to the problem of sand removal. The chief minister called a meeting in this regard with all of the concerned department officials, ministers and MLAs. The chief minister ordered to the DC that sand should be made available from October 15. But DC has not responding to the chief minister of the state.

DC was only bothered about the guidelines of the National Green Tribunal and officers were needlessly complicating the issue. If the present DC cannot solve the sand problem in the district, the government should transfer her and get a new Deputy Commissioner who can deal with the issue, he said.

Bhat said that there is illegal sand extraction taking place in the district even now also. Mines and Geology department officials did not want the problem to be solved that it would stop the hafta they got from illegal sand extractors. But in this illegal sand extraction, DC not involved in corruption.

He said that in the past, there was as many as 171 people were given for sand extraction and 109 leases were given in Non-CRZ. Our demands are that at least 30 people should get lease. 9 leases only accommodate just 5 to six persons each not enough. Earlier the system of GPS is nothing but corrupted business. GPS should be simplified and more sand dunes should be identified, he said.

He said, the administration should realize that workers in the construction sector had no work as the sand removal process had not yet started in the district this year. There is no business to shopkeepers, hotels and so on. The illegal sand extracting lobby and m-sand lobby are benefiting from the delay in allowing sand removal, he said.

He said that a preliminary meeting in regard to day and night agitation will be held at Bannanje Narayanaguru auditorium on October 22 and final appeal will be submitted to the deputy commissioner. If the District administration does not permit extraction of sand, all the construction contractors and others at large will hold day and night agitation at DC office from October 25.

Pradeep Shetty, Sudheer Shetty, Gururaj Rao, Manjunath, Nandakumar, Gopal Bhat, Chandrashekar Nayaari and other among were present during the press meet.