VIJAYAWADA: Directing officials to give proper definition to ‘bulk order’ of sand, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said bulk orders should be removed from the portal. He also directed officials to keep enough stock in sand depots to meet demand for it.
During a review meeting on Friday, the Chief Minister asked officials to remove bulk orders from the portal. "There is a need to define bulk order and it should be monitored by the rank of Joint Collector," the CM maintained.
There should be no complaints about bulk orders once the portal is opened. If sand is needed for government works, the concerned engineers and the Joint Collector should sit and finalise, he said.
He further said that there should be a uniform rate for sand in a constituency and there should be a facility to book sand through village and ward secretariats as well and sand should be supplied only from depots and the booking time should be from 12 noon to 6 pm.
Jagan said people living in the adjacent villages of small rivers should be allowed to take sand on bullock carts for their needs. Officials said that due to the outbreak of coronavirus, all sand reaches were closed, but now the situation has improved and in a span of 10 days, 3 lakh tonnes of sand will be procured.
They said that those taking sand on bullock carts and resorting to illegal storage and transportation would be punished. They will be allowed to draw sand from local sources after registering with panchayat secretary and it should not be misused, the officials said.