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Udupi : Raghupathy Bhat Udupi MLA said that the district administration not solve the ongoing row over sand crisis within 15 days, the people of Udupi district go on severe protest.

Addressing to media persons in press meet at Udupi Press Club on Saturday, November 8, Raghupathy Bhat said that there would be no problems from the point of view of Union government that the Ministry of Environment and Forest had already responded to the queries raised by the deputy commissioner through state government on October 26 after our massive protest against the DC and state government. Hence the response was received on November 29.

Bhat said that although the bathymetrical survey was held prior to October 25, the process to initiate the sand extraction is yet to be launched. The bathymetrical survey has identified sand blocks containing 25 lakhs tonnes of sand. Previous year, sand blocks containing only nine lakh tonnes of sand had been identified, although the extraction process had begun in August last year. All the 170 sand extractors could only extract only 6,76,000 tonnes of sand, he said.

We demand to provide licenses for all 170 applicants. But state government has delaying the process of extraction of sand in the district. The district administration had come up with new proposal not to entertain the licensees with more than double violations in their permit, he added.

The double violations may possible due to unscientific GPS fitted to the boats which wrongly indicates that the boat had moved beyond its area. Even if the boats move 100 meters from the limited area, it is counted as violations. Such violations when repeated for the second time will result in cancellation of the licence and paying of fine up to Rs. 56,000, he said.

He said that there is high demand for M sand in the district which is not good for environment point of view. The sand mafia created in the district from 2013. In order to promote M Sand in the district, the role of previous government is responsible. The illegal sand extraction and transportation was rampant in the district. He urged the minister to intervene and solve the sand crisis at the earliest, he said.

Lorry Owners Association Vice President Praveen Suvarna, Engineers’ Association members Pandurang Achar, Bhagavandas, Udupi district Sand Mining Boat Workers Association president Sudhakar D Amin and others were present during the press meet.