Sand shortage resulted in construction crisis in Dakshina Kannada'

Mangaluru, Sep 28: The failure of Dakshina Kannada district administration in addressing the sand crisis has brought the construction segment in the district to a standstill, claimed Bharatiya Janata Party.

The local unit of BJP on Tuesday staged a protest in front of the office of deputy commissioner in the city against the district administration's apathy to allow sand extraction and its transportation.

The protesters said the local construction industry is in doldrums due to non-availability of sand and illegal transportation of naturally found sediment to outside the district and state.

“With the restrictions imposed by the state government and district administration, those who were extracting the sand legally with valid permits have lost their rights and sand mafia is thriving in the district. The illegally stored sand is sold at a high price in the district,” said the protesters.

Addressing the protesters, former MLC Monappa Bhandary urged the district administration to take legal action against those illegal sand extractors and transporters and allow the sand extraction within the framework of the law, so that naturally available sand is easily available to the people.

It was true that the sand mining in CRZ area was banned from June 15 to August 15, to facilitate marine breeding during the monsoon, it is banned in non-CRZ areas as sand blocks are submerged in waters. However, after the ban period ended, no permission was issued for transporting the sand legally in the district, he said.

“We are not fighting for our cause, it is the poor persons who are getting affected due to non-availability of sand. Construction works require minimum water during monsoon but they have come to a standstill as there is no sand,” he said.

Suspecting something fishy behind the surge in number of permits issued for sand miners, former MLA Yogish Bhat said the permits have increased to 427 from a meagre of 123 in the last few years. Amid this, a section of the sand miners have been pushed to the brink of uncertainty with the district administration not issuing permits.

District BJP spokesperson Jithendra Kottari said that though the sand is being transported to?Bengaluru from Bantwal, Thumbe and Adyar, the authorities have turned a blind eye. The district administration and department of Mines and Geology should end this crisis by checking the illegal transportation of sand and allow sand extraction with the permissible limits. The lorry owners and their dependents as well as civil contractors are in a dilemma with permit turning into a mirage, he said. He added that being unable to repay the loan borrowed, the lorry owners have been contemplating to sell their lorries.

Though officials have seized illegally stored 800 loads of sand at Thumbe, Sajipa, and other 16 villages in Bantwal taluk recently, no action was initiated against those who stored the sand illegally and did not take any step towards auctioning the seized sand, he said.

The activists of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike too staged a separate protest against the non-availability of sand in Dakshina Kannada district on Tuesday. The protesters took out a two-wheeler rally from Balmatta to the deputy commissioner's office on the occasion.