The State Cabinet has approved the new sand policy, under which auctions will be limited to the sand reaches. The government plans to accord first priority to central public undertakings. In case, if they don’t come forward, tenders will be invited from private entities.
The Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday discussed the recommendations of the Cabinet Sub-Committee. The Cabinet decided that the tenders had been sorted into three groups with three districts in each group, where separate tenders would be called for each group.
The sand reaches in the State would be divided into three groups. Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts would be part of the first group. West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts would fall under the second group. Nellore, Anantapur, Chittoor, Kadalay and Kurnool will form the third group, Minister for Agriculture K. Kannababu told presspersons.
The Cabinet felt that facilities should be in place in such a way that users could directly go to the reaches and transport sand using their own vehicles without any additional cost. The government would fix the prices for buying at the reach and for door delivery based on the distance, while sand could be booked on both online and offline, he said, adding the contractor should make 20 vehicles available in case the customer asked for the vehicle to transport the sand.
The sand reaches in scheduled areas would be handed over to tribal institutions as per PESA rules 2011. Likewise, the firms that were permitted to sand mining had to collect the sand from boatsmen societies in desiltation areas. The sale price would be frozen at sand reaches. The sand should not be sold above the fixed price. With this, both customer and the government would benefit, Mr. Kannababu added.
The State government last month had reviewed the sand policy and decided to make changes to maintain more transparency. After facing criticism, the government constituted the cabinet sub committee to study the sand policies in the neighbouring States. Earlier, the government decided to set up the Andhra Pradesh Sand Corporation to implement the sand policy.
