The State Government has issued directives to all the concerned officers to ensure supply of sand on a fair price to various construction sites in Chhattisgarh.
In the same sequence, Additional Chief Secretary of Panchayat and Rural Development and labour Department Vivek Dhand has issued necessary instructions to all the District Collectors of state, by issuing a letter from Mantralaya (Mahanadi Bhavan) on Thursday.
He has instructed the Collectors to submit report of the actions taken in respective districts in abidance to the Government’s instructions, within 15 days.
Notably, on the eve of New Year, Chief Minister Raman Singh had convened a meeting of senior officials at the Mantralaya and had issued orders to control the price of sand in all the districts of State. In the same sequence, Additional Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand had issued a letter to all the District Collectors stating that recently, there has been an unexpected rise in price of sand.
Environment clearance to sand mines is being considered as the prime reason behind this abrupt hike. Presently, the sand mines are operating under the control of Gram Panchayats. Hence, the Collectors have been ordered to issue strict instructions to the Mining Officers of their respective districts to ensure that all the sand mines operating in the district go through the process to get environment clearance from the Committee formed
by Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation and Environment Department.
Special campaigns must be organised for the aforementioned task. Moreover, Chief Executive Officials should also be instructed to cooperate with the Mining Officers in this work. Collectors have been instructed to ensure that all the sand mines that were operational before the issuance of Supreme Court’s order, start functioning by the end of January month, the press release stated.
The Additional Chief Secretary also stated in the letter that with the increasing number of construction works in state like buildings, cement concrete roads and bridges, the demand for supply of sand has also increased proportionately. But as of now the sand suppliers are charging way too higher price for sand, compared to the actual cost (including royalty and transportation charges). This is unacceptable for the Government has handed over the control of sand mines to local bodies expecting that this will help in controlling price of sand, he said.
Collectors have been instructed to mark all such areas in their respective districts where sand mining is possible. After getting approval for the same from Environment Department, sand mines should be started in those areas with the help of respective Gram Panchayats.
It has also been stated in the letter that reportedly, some of the Gram Panchayats are not operating the sand mines by themselves, and have rather handed it over to other elements. These elements are minting unnecessary commissions in pretext of repairing roads or hiring labourers. Owing to which, the consumers are bound to pay higher prices for supply of sand at construction sites.
On the other hand, Gram Panchayats are not receiving any revenue except the amount charges as royalty. Hence, Collectors have also been instructed to ensure that the Gram Panchayats operate the sand mines themselves, and not through any medium. District Collectors have been instructed to strictly abide by the given instructions and to report entire details of the action taken in abidance of the same within 15 days. Additional Chief Secretary has also stated in the letter that soon, the State Chief Secretary will have a video conference with all the District Collectors to have further discussions on the topic.