VIJAYAWADA: With the State government announcing that it will introduce a new sand policy scrapping the one introduced by the TDP government, the mining department officials are preparing a report on the possible methods to make the entire proces transparent.
The options of establishing stockyards at the sand reaches, which will be under a government corporation, are being examined. Even though mining operations at reaches were to be under the control of women self help groups (DWCRA) as per the earlier ‘free’ sand policy, they were mostly managed by local ruling party leaders, which has been acknowledged by the officials, leading to illegal mining. There was no regulation on the prices at which the commodity was sold as well, the officials concurred. To address this issue, the officials, are studying various methods including establishment of stockyards at sand reaches.
“A special corporation — either new or an existing one —will tender out the reaches to private players with nominal margin of profit. The private player will have to manually mine sand and transport it to the stockyard. The sales will be done by the corporation online, like in Telangana, where consumers post their requirement and pay the requisite amount set by the corporation. The commodity will be transported by engaging a third-party. The corporation monitor the entire process,” a senior official explained.
A report on various options will be submitted to the government in a week or two, another official added. He noted corporation-monitored sales will fetch a miner a profit of around 5-10 per cent as against the previous margin of over 400-500 per cent.
Sand utilisation in State
80% sand in State is used for govt projects
10-12 % for private constructions
8-10 % used by marginal sections