Mangaluru: A meeting of the Dakshina Kannada district Task Force Committee meet was held at the DC’s office here on Thursday, April 16 to discuss sand mining. During the discussions several stringent actions were mooted. These include mandatory installation of GPS in lorries used for sand transportation and CCTV cameras at mining spots. 10 wheeled vehicles for sand transport are already banned.
It was the Mangaluru City Police Commissioner S Murugan who proposed that GPS systems be installed in all the vehicles used in transporting sand. He said that certain criteria need to be chalked out to maintain the standard of the GPS systems. Meanwhile, District Superintendent of Police Sharanappa advised that it would be helpful to check illegal mining if CCTV cameras are installed on the banks of rivers and seas where sand is being mined. Funds for the same could be obtained from the corpus fund of the Geology and Mines Department.
Vehicle overloads
Apart from these suggestions, the issue of vehicle overloads came to the fore. Permitted vehicles are allowed to carry as much as 10 tons of sand per trip. However, lorries circumvent this stipulation by using a bigger body so as to carry extra sand illegally.
Police Commissioner Murugan directed the Regional Transport Officer to seize the license of overloaded vehicles. However, the RTO expressed concerns that registering complaints against the lorries wasn’t easy. The PC did not relent and told the RTO to register an FIR and the police would follow up on the matter from there.
One day per lorry!
DC Ibrahim said that the permit to transport one load of sand per lorry must be restricted for a day. He said that the officials concerned are to be consulted and a decision in this regard has to be taken soon. This measure should strictly be brought into effect at the earliest, he added. The DC also expressed concern for the health and hygiene of the sand mining workers and transporters. A follow up meet has been called for all the stake holders – sand miners, boat and lorry owners has been called at the DC’s office on Saturday, April 18 at 4.30 pm.
