Mumbai, March 17 (IANS) Amid rapidly increasing illegal sand mining and mafia raj, Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Monday announced in the Maharashtra Assembly that the state government will release a comprehensive sand policy with a slew of punitive actions, within the next eight days.
“The government is resolved to end the sand mafia raj in Maharashtra. The focus is on supply of sand as per demand. The government will promote sand producing machines across the state which will help reduce the gap between the demand and supply for sand,” he said.
“Besides, the government will take stern action against the use of suction pumps for sand mining in the state as it is a very serious offence and also against the norms for environment conservation and ruling of the National Green Tribunal. The directives will be given today to the divisional commissioners to immediately ask the tehsildars to remove the suction pumps and thereby stop the sand mining. If they fail to do so, the government will even consider the suspension of tehsildars who fail to comply with the government’s directive,” he said in his reply to a calling attention motion by Nana Patole, Vijay Wadettiwar and others.
Bawankule said the government has already received 235 suggestions from stakeholders on the proposed sand policy.
He appealed to the ruling and Opposition legislators to give their suggestions in the next three days before making the final draft sand policy which will be later presented to the Cabinet for its consent.
The minister said that the government has decided to provide sand free of cost to those who are building houses, especially in rural areas under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana.
He further told the Assembly that if the sand is not made available, the tehsildars concerned will face the action.
“A large number of houses are being built in the state by the central and state governments. Under this house building scheme, sand will be made available in large quantities for houses. Also, the state government will soon introduce the M-Sand scheme wherein the sand will be prepared by grinding stones through stone crushers in every district of the state. Therefore, the availability of alternative sand will reduce the demand for traditional river sand,” he said, adding that it will be a part of the proposed sand policy.
Bawankule further said that the government will soon take a decision to start ghats in places where sand ghats have not been auctioned in the state and where the approval of the Environment Department has been received.
–IANS
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