New guidelines for sand mining

Kadapa: In order to check sand mining that is going unabated in the district, the government has come up with a new set of guidelines for sand mining in the district. As per the new rules prior permission has to be obtained from the District Collector, or from the panchayat secretary basing on the needs. At the mandal level, the Tahsildars have to give permission to carry out sand mining. Moreover, sand mining should not take place at a region if the sand was less than 2 feet deep. In order to put an end to illegal sand mining in the district, the state government has transferred sand mining from the Department of Coal and Mines to the District Water Management Agency (DWAMA) with the District Collector as chairman and DWAMA project director as convener. The District Collector Kona Kishore and DWAMA project director Yadubhushan Reddy have decided to take concrete measures to put an end to sand quarrying, which is now going on unchecked. As part of the measure, they have identified regions in the district into five categories. The Collector also appointed a special team of officials led by the Superintending Engineer, Additional Director of Mines and Mineral Resources and several Deputy Directors who toured the district to get a first hand information on the availability of sand in the different categories. They would be submitting a report to the Collector about the sand reaches that have been identified in the district. Under the first category, sand reaches were identified in streams in all the villages, and under the second category in small canals and streams of Gunjana, Masteru, Gundaleru, Pullamgeru, and Pamuleru in the regions of Railway Koduru, Chitveli, and Penuguluru regions. Under the third category, sand reaches were identified near small rivers in the region of T Sundupalle and Vaddepalli regions. The banks of River Chitravathi, Papaghni and Cheyyeru fall under the 4th category. A team of government officials were also exploring sand reaches and ramps in the regions of Cheyyeru and on the banks of Penna. However, permission was not granted for allowing sand mining in the regions of Somashila backwaters, Penuguluru, and Siddhavatam as they come under the forest area. The region covering River Penna falls under the 5th category.