Karnataka   

Permanent ban on sand extraction in Chickaballapur

CHICKABALLAPUR: The State Government has decided to impose a permanent ban on sand extraction in the arid Chickaballapur and Kolar districts.

According to Minister for Minorities Welfare, Wakf and Haj Mumtaz Ali Khan, who is also Chickaballapur district in charge Minister, the State Government will soon come out with an order in that regard.

After discussing the issue at a high-level meeting of Ministers, the Government had instructed the Secretary, Department of Commerce and Industries, to take necessary measures in that regard, Mr. Khan said in a press release here on Wednesday.

The Minister said that in the past 20 months several measures had been taken to check illegal sand extraction in Chickaballapur district, where two workers died at an illegal sand quarry on Monday. However, these measures had not yielded desired results and sand extraction was continuing, he said.

Mr. Khan said he had instructed officials to convene a meeting of legislators, elected representatives of local bodies, farmer leaders and environment activists from the district to discuss measures to check illegal sand extraction.

Meanwhile, three MLAs from Chickaballapur district on Wednesday said that the district administration had completely failed to check sand extraction despite the ban.

Addressing a joint press conference here, Congress MLAs N.H. Shivashankar Reddy (Gauribidanur), M.C. Sudhakar (Chintamani) and N. Sampangi (Bagepalli) said they would raise the issue in the next Assembly session.

When all the five MLAs from the district had together staged an indefinite agitation in December, Mr. Khan had announced certain measures to check illegal sand extraction.

But, the district administration had failed to enforce them, they said.

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