Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Special squad to check sand-mining

Issues galore: People air their views at a meeting convened by the District Collector to discuss steps to tackle illegal sand-mining and other issues on Saturday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The District Collector has ordered the setting up of a special squad headed by the Revenue Development Officer to check illegal sand-mining at Kadinamkulam.

Meanwhile, the stay on removing sand from the area, issued on March 28, will remain in place. These decisions were taken at a meeting convened by District Collector Sanjay Kaul and attended by panchayat members from Kadinamkulam, representatives of local people and M.A. Wahid, MLA.

Local people led by ‘Prathikarana Vedi’ president M.A. Latheef demanded that the district administration take effective steps to check what they termed ‘large-scale illegal mining of sand along a 900-metre stretch of the Parvathy Puthanar at Kadinamkulam.’ They demanded compensation for the people whose property/house sustained damaged following removal of sand from the sides of the canal. They also demanded effective police action against the henchmen of the ‘sand mafia’ who, they said, threatened local people including women into silence.

When they failed to get a firm commitment from the Collector on these issues, the local people walked out of the meeting. Mr. Latheef later told The Hindu that about 150 truckloads of sand were being taken away each day from the sides of the canal from Anakkappilla bridge to Channankara bridge. “The sand mafia have bribed everyone from local residents, the panchayat members and the three trade unions. All these people get a fixed sum for each truckload. Each load of sand sells for Rs.20,000. The MLA and even the Collector argued that we should not stand in the way of the development projects to make the canal navigable. We are not. We are against illegal mining of sand,” he said.

Today there is a height difference of about 10 metres between the canal sides and the canal bed. Water in most of the wells in the area have drained away causing an acute drinking water shortage, he added. Mr. Kaul said here that Revenue officials had on Saturday started a survey to determine the extent of sand-mining, if any, in the area. The Kovalam-Kottappuram national waterway development scheme will be taken forward and the people’s problems will be addressed effectively, he added.

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