State successful in curbing illegal sand mining: KTR

Minister for Mines and Geology K. Tarakarama Rao on Wednesday said that the state government has curbed illegal mining of sand in the state by taking various stringent measures.

Speaking in Assembly, the minister said that the state government has acted strictly against the officials for irregularities in sand mining. He said that the government has collected Rs 11.8 crore in the form of fines against the violations in mining and transportation of sand. He said that the government would implement the GPS method to track the movement of sand vehicles by January end. He said that the government was planning to install CCTV cameras at  sand reaches if there was a requirement of the same as part of its crackdown on irregularities in mining and transportation of sand.

Ktr said that the State Government has sent a delegation to Odisha to study that state’s sand mining policy. The minister stating that the new sand policy was in its last stage of drafting and added that the same would   be introduced in the Cabinet meeting very soon for approval.