KANNUR: The sale of sand manually dredged from the Azhikkal port basin and channel in the Valapattanam river here will be streamlined, with the government sanctioning sand mining permit to five local panchayats.
Though the government sanctioned mining permit to the local panchayats after discontinuing the practice of renewing permits of co-operative societies of sand mining workers, mining and sale of manually dredged sand were yet to be on track.
Azhikode panchayat was the first to execute the permit employing workers registered with it. The other panchayats have made arrangements to extract sand.
For the record, Ports Minister Kadannappally Ramachandran had called a meeting of officials and panchayat representatives on September 22 to discuss the matter. Azhikode, Pappinissery, Valapattanam, Kalliassery, and Mattul have been allotted three ‘kadavus’ (sand extraction points) each. Officials had told the meeting that 75,000 tonnes of sand could be extracted from the river a month for sale. The Centre for Development of Imaging Technology (C-DIT) representatives said the new e-manal software aimed to address existing problems in sand booking would be operational from September 25. Maintaining that the government would act tough on ‘sand mafia groups’, the Minister said the sale of sand through panchayats was introduced to end exploitation in the sector. According to him, the new system offers additional revenue to panchayats, besides making sand available to the public at reasonable price.
Meanwhile, Ports Department officials said the sand extracted from kadavus would now be sold at ₹7,900 per five tonnes plus transportation charge.
Earlier, when the sand mining permit was sanctioned to cooperative societies, the price was anywhere between ₹14,000 and ₹17,000 per mini lorry, with less carrying capacity, they added.