MANGALORE : The unabated sand smuggling going on from Dakshina Kannada and
Udupi districts has not only been a matter of great concern, but of late has even proved
to be a law and order problem. It has now been gathered that some politicians too have
joined hands secretly with this sand mafia.
It is being said that some elected representatives whoa are also in the field of real estate
in the district and who were instrumental in imposing a ban on sand transportation from
the twin districts towards Kerala in December last, are strengthening their business
through a secret understanding with the sand mafia. It is believed that they were
pressurizing the authorities against initiating action against their accomplices and are
seeing to it that innocents are victimized in the process.
In this backdrop, there is also a demand that the government should permit the
transportation of sand towards Kerala by revoking the order, in order to put a brake to the
smuggling.
There is no doubt that there has been a significant rise in the demand for sand from the
district in Kerala ever since sand transportation towards Kerala was banned and sand
mining was banned in Kerala. Despite the restriction, the sand lorries of the influential
even now move towards Kerala right on the Highway itself.
Reports say the mined sand is heaped up in some hilly areas in BC Road, Gurupur,
Narlapadavu, Adyapady, Polali, Moolarapatna, Addoor and other places and then packed
in plastic bags and smuggled towards Kerala in lorries during night time. Even if there
is some raid, there are documents to prove that they are meant to be transported to the
MRPL and Nagarjuna sites.
If sand is being mined using Hitachi machines during summer, during monsoons they are
manually mined through boats. There would be no hassles even if the minister’s aide has
to smuggle thousands of lorry loads of sand.
Apart from Karnataka, sand is transported to Kerala even from Gujarat and Tamil Nadu
where there is no such restriction. Still, the quality of the sand available there is no match
to the one from Dakshina Kannada. If a lorry load of sand is available for Rs 3000 in
Dakshina Kannada it is sold for upto Rs 25000 in Kerala. This is one of the reasons
for the unabated sand smuggling. One option that is now left before the government is
to permit sand transportation towards Kerala as this would also yield revenue to the
government while also benefiting the businessmen.
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