Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Sep 17: Minister for geology and mining, Halappa Achar, held meeting with the coastal MLAs at Bengaluru on Thursday September relating to the demand for simplifying sand policy specifically in both CRZ and non CRZ areas of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts.

The legislators told the minister that the sand policy that was in force in 2017 was favourable for the people. They said that the sand extraction in the CRZ area of Dakshina Kannada has been suspended from September 17 and that unless steps are taken to address the issues, sand shortage might occur again in these districts. They said that because of heavy rains, sand needs to be extracted from the rivers regularly, failing which the agricultural land will be damaged. They wanted the power to extract sand within the gram panchayats to be delegated to panchayat development officers and to issue licences to everyone who was involved with traditional sand extraction.

The minister promised to scrutinise the opinions expressed by the MLAs and to convene another meeting within the next15 to 20 days, said MLA, Umanath Kotian.

The meeting was attended by ministers S Angara and Shivaram Hebbar, MLAs Umanath Kotian, Sanjeeva Matandoor, Rajesh Naik, Vedavyasa Kamath, Harish Poonja, Dr Bharath Shetty, Sukumar Shetty, Dinakar Shetty, Sunil Naik and Dakshina Kannada district deputy commissioner Dr Rajendra K V.