After three seasons of lying in the open, the sand mined from the Malampuzha, Walayar and Chulliyar dams by the Kerala Mineral Development Corporation Limited (KMDCL), is being readied for sale in the open market.
The core committee headed by the district collector has decided to do away with mechanised loading of the sand obtained by desilting of dams, in the wake of criticism of the payment of ‘nokku kooli’ for 200-odd workers in Malampuzha in 2010. The sand lying in the dam site will be loaded manually and the wages will be paid at Rs 97 for one metre cube of sand, at the rate fixed by the Labour Department, KMDCL sources said.
In 2010, the loading was done with cranes and the workers were paid Rs 300 per day for more than a year, calculated at the rate of Rs 35 per metre cube which was criticised as ‘nokku kooli’. Labour problems, public protests due to damage to roads and vigilance enquiries led to the sand not being lifted, and the freezing of the accounts of the KMDCL by the Industries Department.
“We plan to transport the sand from next week. The re-filtering is in progress. The sale will be conducted as per the Government order at the rate of Rs 18 per cubic feet as against the prevailing market rate of Rs 150 per cubic feet,” said KMDCL Managing Director K Venugopal.
As per the figures of the Irrigation Department, around 88,000 metre cube of excavated sand from the three dams of Malampuzha, Walayar and Chulliyar is lying here. A sum of Rs 27 lakh which was due to the 316 workers as wages was also paid after the KMDCL accounts were defreezed recently.
Around 350 workers were employed for the purpose in the three dams. People who want to buy the sand can deposit the money in the treasury and the loading charges will be transferred to the accounts of unions.