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Sand mining: A 15,000cr biz 

PVT PLAYERS MAKE 80 TIMES OF WHAT GOVT EARNS DUE TO POOR SUPERVISION OF OPERATION 

Jayaraj Sivan | TNN 


If there is a trade as fetching as the monopoly retail sale of liquor in the state,it is managing and operating licensed sand quarries of the public works department (PWD).
It is estimated that river sand mining contractors engaged by the PWD in TN take home roughly 40 crore a day.In a year,it is estimated they make about 15,000 crore enough to fund a metro rail project of Chennais size.In comparison,the governments annual revenue of 188 crore from sand mining (for 2012-2013 ) is a pittance.
Private contractors make 80 times of what government earns,thanks to poor supervision of mining and sale.While government gets a meagre 1,248 for a billed 400 cubic feet (cft) of load,a contractor earns more than 7,500 for the same consignment.Incidentally,rules say the contractor is only entitled to a predetermined rate of 220 per load.
Official records say that on an average,close to five dozen quarries yielded about 8,300 truckloads (as per PWD statistics,each load is 200 cft) per day in the state in the last financial year,with Chennai and Trichy,as the two major regions,contributing the bulk of the river sand.The overall yield,on record,has fallen to 5,000 to 5,500 truckloads per day after the National Green Tribunal recently laid down stringent norms to regulate sand mining.
But there is no correlation between official figures and actual supply of sand in the state.In reality,Chennai alone gets a daily supply of 9,000 to 10,000 truckloads (each of them 400 cft).Across the state,about 55,000 sand lorry operators manage to procure a minimum of one truckload per day,said a source in the sand lorry owners association.This means,bulk of the commodity is mined and sold without bills, said the source.
Permission granted to sand miners to maintain stockyards on river banks is the main reason for indiscriminate mining and smuggling of sand,said Tamil Nadu State Sand Lorry Owners Federation president S Yuvaraj.A sizeable portion of illegally mined sand goes to Kerala and Karnataka,he said.Though the rules stipulate that mines should be operated between 6am and 6pm,many vehicles take out loads in the night,he said.The government should take over mining and loading activity too,he demanded,adding that such a step would not only help earn more revenue for the exchequer,but also reduce price of sand.

TIMES VIEW 


Though the state has control over sand quarries,it has not been able to stop illegal mining by contractors.While it has fixed 220 per truck load (400 cft) as fees for their services,enforcement is lacking.They fleece truck owners,who in turn fleece consumers.Sand prices will stabilize only if government deploys more people to manage sand quarries.

Govt allots 250 crore for solid waste mgmt 

Chennai: The state government has allotted 250 crore for urban and rural local bodies towards solid waste management and set up a committee to approve schemes to resolve the mounting garbage crisis.
A submission to this effect was made before the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal on Friday.The bench was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the solid waste management sites and existing practices of local bodies in the state.The commissionerate of municipal administration (CMA) submitted a report on proposed projects,including biomethanation,vermi-composting and refuse-derived fuel,in all 134 urban local bodies in the state.
This is indicative of a positive step and also a good gesture on the part of the government, the bench said.It asked the CMA to submit a status report on waste management for the rest of the state,other than 43 local bodies,where projects are in various stages of completion.The bench may set up a committee to oversee projects implementations.The governments sanctioning committee comprises representatives from the CMA and Chennai corporation.TNN