PANAJI
Gearing up for legal sand mining activities in the State, the Directorate of Mines and Geology (DMG) has mandated a self-declaration certificate from all those individuals intending to apply for sand extraction permits in River Mandovi and Zuari.
The self-declaration mandates the applicant to declare whether he or she is a traditional or non-traditional sand extractor from the local community. The DMG is set to grant permits across 12 zones in both the rivers, together.
Following the environmental clearance (EC) recommendation, the DMG, earlier this week, invited applications from the persons from the local community for sand mining, within a period of 30 days. DMG said that 70 per cent of the licenses would be issued to traditional extractors with a cap on individual to carry out 1000 cubic meters of sand mining per year as per the Goa Mineral Concession (Amendment) Rules 2022.
The DMG has now said that a self-declaration certificate, with revenue stamp, is must to ascertain that the applicants’ livelihood is dependent solely on extraction of sand by manual means.
The self-declaration form, to be filled, also seeks to confirm that the applicant is the only person from the family who has applied for grant of permission for sand extraction under Rule 68A of Goa Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1985.
The applicant has to declare, in presence of two witnesses that, he or she indemnify and shall keep indemnified the Government of Goa against all claims, suits, proceedings, actions, costs, charges due to any dispute arising between the permit holder, landowner where sand will be stacked, owner of registered canoe, owner/operator of vehicle used for transport or any other party.
The applicant has to also declare in writing that he or she will comply with all the conditions of the Environmental Clearance/ Permit and any other conditions imposed by the Directorate of Mines & Geology and other competent authorities.
