Identify New Sand Reaches to Meet the Demand: Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy

Amaravati: The Minister for Mines Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy directed the district collectors and other officials to identify and operate new sand reaches across the State to bridge the gap between demand and supply, during a review meeting on the Sand Policy with the Group of Ministers (GOM) at his camp office in Vijayawada on Thursday. In this review meeting, Ministers including Perni Nani, Kodali Nani along with Gopal Krishna Dwivedi, Principal Secretary, Mining Department and Harinarayan, VC and MD, APMDC participated.

The government has been using the latest technology to identify the potential sand reaches. Ramachandra Reddy suggested the officials take the advantage of this technology while giving permissions to the new sand reaches.

At the same time,, the GOM cautioned the officials to abide by all the environmental laws and rules while allowing the new sand reaches. The GOM also suggested making it easy for the consumers to get the sand at their doorstep. The GOM ordered concerned authorities to give all the necessary permissions for operating new sand reaches, in order to reduce the burden on existing ones.

The Ministers suggested the officials consider each district as an unit while estimating the demand and supply formula. In order to have proper knowledge on the availability of sand, the GOM directed the authorities to prepare comprehensive maps of all sand reaches in the districts. The Joint Collectors were asked to coordinate on it.

During discussion on the floods, the ministers asked the officials to clear the sand at all the stock points located on the banks of Rivers, as soon as possible.