'Traditional mining of sand will help people access quality sand at low price'

The demands on allowing mining of sand in non-CRZ (coastal regulation zone) areas along the coastal districts in a traditional manner will be considered by the government, Minister for Mines and Geology, Women and Child Development Halappa Basappa Achar said on Friday.

He was addressing reporters after presiding over a review meeting of Mines and Geology, Women and Child Welfare and Department for Empowerment of Differently Abled and Senior Citizens at Udupi Zilla Panchayat hall.

The minister said that mining sand in traditional manner will ensure that people will have access to quality sand at a low price.

Mining sand in the traditional manner will help in the mitigation of floods, Udupi MLA Raghpathy Bhat told the minister.

Halappa said that Maralu Mitra App for sand mining was ready and will be implemented in Udupi district on an experimental basis before extending it to other districts.

He said the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) had permitted mining of 78,039 tonnes of sand annually in the non-CRZ region. About 35,075 tonnes of sand was mined as of January 25, 2022.

He added that the revenue expected from sand mining was fixed at Rs 360 crore for the fiscal year 2021-22. Upto January 25, 2022, revenue of 288 crore was collected.

The minister said that Karnataka State Coastal Zonal Management Authority (KCZMA) had allowed the mining of 12,30,438.05 metric tons of sand from 23 sand blocks identified in 23 regions along the river basin in CRZ areas. Until January 25, a total of 2,11,718.64 metric tons of sand was mined.

He said the district has 65,960 children and 725 among them are malnourished and 65 of them are severely malnourished.

He directed officials to submit a proposal on increasing grants from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 15 lakh to old age homes.

Karnataka Coastal Development Authority president Mattaru Ratnakar Hegde, Byndoor MLA Sukumar Shetty, commerce and industries department secretary Pankaj Kumar Pandey, mines and geology department secretary Dr V Ramprasad, among others, were also present.