PANAJI
Truckers and local sand transport operators in North Goa have raised the red flag over what they allege is “clandestine” import of sand from across the border.
Amit Tari and a group of sand transport operators alleged that vehicles carrying sand from Kudal and other areas have been entering the State unchecked in the face of a complete ban on the local industry due to court directions.
“What are the authorities and concerned officials doing? How are these trucks plying in Goa so freely?,” asked Tari and appealed to the police authorities to step up vigil.
The local extraction and trading of sand, a crucial input for the construction industry, has faced severe uncertainty over several years with intermittent interventions from the courts.
Regulated by the ‘minor minerals’ section of the mining department, the absence of a firm policy or scientific regime for granting extraction licences has forced courts to intervene and ban it over environmental destruction of riverine ecosystems.
Tari and his colleagues allege that while local trucks carrying the crucial construction material are immediately seized, the authorities turn a blind eye to these trucks coming in from Kudal and other areas of Maharashtra.
Currently the extraction activity is at a virtual standstill and whatever little sand is transacted is all happening clandestinely.
The resultant shortage faced by the State’s construction industry is reportedly being overcome by imports from across the border which Tari and the other truckers allege is also illegal.
Meanwhile, erosion of the banks of several rivers including Tiracol in some parts of Pernem, Chapora in Siolim and other contiguous areas of Bardez and also in Colvale and Amona has been blamed on unregulated and indiscriminate sand extraction from the river beds.
Currently, the department of mines and geology has stopped permitting sand mining anywhere in Goa following intervention of the High Court which has directed formulation of a proper state-level policy to scientifically regulate it before the activity is restarted. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant who holds the mining portfolio has revealed in the recent session of the Goa Legislative Assembly that this sand mining policy and rules will be formulated soon so that the local sand business resumes at the earliest.
Recently, irate sand transporters had stopped several trucks from Maharashtra, which were used for transporting sand from Kudal, along the Old Goa bypass road.
