In a bid to curb rampant malpractices in the sand mining sector, the Maharashtra government has planned to amend the Maharashtra Land Revenue (Extraction and Removal of Minor Minerals) Rules 1968. According to a senior state revenue official, currently, the penalties for various violations in sand extracting and removing are quite high. “We have received complaints about offenders, rather than paying the exorbitant penalty, are doing a settlement with the local revenue officers under the table. Therefore, we have decided to amend this extraction and removal of the minor minerals rules by slashing the current high amount of penalty,” the official said requesting anonymity. As per the present notification, the state government charges a penalty of Rs 25,000 if the drill machines were found out using for illegal sand mining. While for the tractor the penalty is Rs 1 lakh, for dumper/trolly penalty is Rs 2 lakh, troller charges are Rs 5 lakh and for the mechanised loader, the penalty is Rs 7.50 lakh. “These current penalties for confiscating various machinery used for sand mining are quite exorbitant and unrealistic. Earlier, we used to fine contractors alone. There was no provision for charging a penalty for the use of various machinery. So to curb the illegal sand mining, we purposefully imposed fine on machinery also. However, it has been now misused and huge malpractice has been carried out,” the official said. “We are in the process of preparing the proposal. It will soon be submitted to the cabinet where this final decision of amending the rules and slashing the penalty charges will be taken. There will be at least 20 per cent cut in these charges. So people can easily pay and it will also result in increasing our revenue. Due to the high penalty, the government was deprived of its legitimate revenue,” he said. The state has also allowed local villagers to extract the sand but with the prior permission of local Tahsildar. “They (villagers) will have to pay the payment or royalty in advance to the government. The extracted sand has to be used for domestic use such as the construction of houses or well as well. They can not remove more than two brass of sand per day.” ILLEGAL ACTS

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