Amid 'Sand Week' celebrations, only two reaches functioning in Andhra Pradesh's Prakasam
ONGOLE: Though the district authorities have announced that availability of sand has increased in the ongoing ‘sand week celebrations’ as more sand reaches have become operational, in reality the sand scarcity in the district continues with sand mining continuing only in two out of 15 reaches.
Only Annangi and Chinna Ganjam reaches are currently yielding sand. Mining has not yet started at reaches such as Mallavaram, Keerthipadu and K Bitragunta.
At present, around 500 tonnes of sand is produced per day from the two reaches, which is not sufficient to meet the daily average requirement of 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes in the district. The authorities have decided to increase the production to 1,000 tonnes per day soon by operating these two reaches round-the-clock all seven days of the week.
Two more reaches at Polavaram and Peda Ganjam village limits will be made operational from Thursday onwards. The Mallavaram reaches will be operational immediately after the floodwater decreases there.
Mining deputy director Narasimharao said, “We are trying our best to increase the availability of sand in the district. But 11 reaches, including four in Mallavaram and three in Keerthipadu are not operational due to the floodwaters, and four reaches of K Bitragunta in Jarugumalli mandal limits are not operational due to some local issues.
In view of the difficulties of the local people, we are going to start mining in Polavaram and Peda Ganjam reaches from Thursday onwards. Though we provided sand stock at Markapur, people were not taking it, claiming that its quality was not up to the mark. Within three days, we will start another reach at Bitragunta to meet the sand requirement in the district.” Recently, the district authorities had given nod for mining at 15 out of the proposed 22 identified sand reaches in patta lands. Out of these 15, only two reaches are operational, as mentioned earlier and another two will become operational from Thursday.
Among the other 11 proposed, four reaches at Mallavaram, three at Keerthipadu, that is seven reaches in all, are yet to be operational, as floodwaters of River Gundlakamma are yet to recede. On the other hand, four reaches identified at K Bitragunta village in Jarugumalli mandal limits are embroiled in local disputes.
The district authorities also identified sand deposits, considered enough for the local usage, at around 62 places in 23 mandal limits. Sands from rivulets and small streams including Gundlakamma, Musi, Manneru, Chilakaleru, Ogeru, Vupputeru and Paleru can be used for localised sand mining. Under this ‘sand week celebrations’, district authorities supplied S-3 forms of bond-paper way bill-books to all 23 mandal authorities, so that they could give those to the local panchayat staff, who in turn would give those to the local sand purchasers.
But, except for one village– Kunkubadu–mining of sand is yet to start. Meanwhile, as most of the sand reaches are still filled with floodwaters, locals of Krishna and Guntur district were also booking sand stocks online from Prakasam district. However, even for Prakasam district locals, sand stock is still not available in accordance to their requirements. “Although we try to book sand stock online, we are unable to do so even after a day’s effort as it keeps showing a ‘no stock’ status,” Velagapudi Srinivasa Rao of Ongole said.