more-in Claiming that sand prices in Dakshina Kannada have skyrocketed, hitting construction work, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday urged the Deputy Commissioner to issue permits for extracting sand from river. Addressing reporters, Sanjeeva Matandoor, president of the Dakshina Kannada unit of the party, said a lorry full of sand supplied illegally now costs ?18,000. The construction industry is facing a severe scarcity of sand and labourers are left with no work, he said. He said government housing projects too have come to a halt. The district administration should have issued permits by August 15. The delay is only adding to the thriving sand mafia, Mr. Matandoor said. ‘Lobby at work’ He alleged that the manufactured sand lobby was behind the district administration delaying in issuing permits for extracting sand from rivers. He said the lobby was trying to push its sand into the market by distributing pamphlets. “When river sand is available, why should people be forced to use M-sand?” he asked. He said the party has learnt that the district administration has received 1,364 applications seeking permit for extracting river sand. Of that, the authorities have found 406 applications to be in order, but they have not issued permit to anyone, he claimed. He said if permits are issued, people can purchase a lorry load of river sand for ?4,000. The BJP also asked why B. Ramanath Rai, Minister in charge of the district, was “being silent” on the problems being faced by people. Mr. Matandoor said the Revenue Department has issued notice to some farmers in Sullia, Puttur and Belthangady taluks asking why the government land encroached by them for farming purposes (in kumki, kana and bane categories of land) should not be taken over by the government. “It is unfair to issue such notices without disposing of the applications filed by farmers under Akrama-Sakrama scheme. The Akrama-Sakrama committees in taluks headed by MLAs should first look at the cases [of regularisation of land] of those applicants,” he said.

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