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Udupi : The District Lorry Owners Association has given a deadline of November 21 to the district administration to solve the problem of sand extraction in the district.

Addressing a press conference at Bannanje Guru Premises on Tuesday, October 23, Praveen Suvarna President of Udupi District Lorry Owners’ Association said that there was a meeting with Deputy Commissioner Priyanka Mary Francis after protest by them about the problems facing by large due to sand extraction in the district. Then she assured after consulting top level officials in the state in front of them and later she assured the delegates to allow sand extraction in respective of both CRZ and non-CRZ in next twenty days. As there are several government holidays, we are given time limit upto 30 days. We will call severe protests in front of DC’s office in case permission is not given in thirty days, he said.

Praveen Suvarna said that the association had demanded to give permits for CRZ and Non-CRZ areas be issued simultaneously. When only 68 permits were issued as was planned and the rest later, it would be more trouble that demand will be more and supply will be less. Then those who got permits early would make heavy profits. These 68 permits holders would be able to remove only 17,500 tonnes of sand which would be enough for only one month. They asked DC to give permit as in 2011, when the district administration provided permits to 171 persons who were earlier holding permits for sand extraction in the district, he said.

Praveen Suvarna said that many areas in the CRZ areas in Kundapur and Byndoor taluks had been declared as sensitive areas, the administration was likely to provide for extraction depending on sand blocks available in the non-CRZ areas in these two taluks. We had been informed about the problems in these two taluks to K Jayaprakash Hegde former MP. Hegde said that he would try his level best to get relaxation in sensitive areas in these two taluks, he said.

Asked about the GPS installation, Praveen said that earlier, GPS installed in lorries’ were defective. There would be no need to install GPS in lorries that sand will be sold out in the district only. The Mangaluru based ‘I Search GPS company’ not only defective, but also poor quality. Then district administration ordered Bangaluru based company “T for View Company” on lorries to keep a tab on sand mining. Earlier we paid Rs. 10,000 and later after installing GPS from Bengaluru, once again we paid Rs. 10,000. But up to now, no receipt had given. The matter has been brought to the notice of DC on Monday about the cheating by these companies. It would be responsibility of district administration to preven illegal sand mining. District Administration itself installs CCTV camas where ever it needed. Meanwhile district administration should install GPS on sand transporting lorries at their own cost, he said.

Praveen also said that administration usually collected fine from lorries carrying sand illegally. But it should also take action against those who had illegally extracted sand. The fine being collected from a lorry carrying sand was double the value of the truck, he claimed.

The district administration had assured them of solving the sand problem, the Lorry Owners’ Association would not be supporting the indefinite protest on the sand issue called by other organizations here on October 25, he said.

Chandra Poojary President of Kaup Katpady Lorry Owners’ Association, Gunakar Shetty President of Kundapur Byndoor Lorry Owners’ Association, Uday Kumar President of Karkala Lorry Owners’ Association and others were present during the press meet.