Even as it welcomed the announcement that 70 new sand quarries would be opened soon, the Tamil Nadu Sand Lorry Owners’ Federation has urged the State government to expedite the process.
The State government should open the new sand quarries immediately to ensure availability of sand for government and private construction activities, Sella Rajamani, president of the Federation, told presspersons here on Wednesday.
He said that at present, only eight quarries – two each in Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Villupuram and one each in Vellore and Ramanathapuram districts – were functioning. This had led to severe scarcity of sand for construction activities.
The State government, in July, introduced the online registration system for procurement of river sand. However, due to very few quarries remaining functional, the lorries had to wait for more than 40 days after making the online booking. Sand lorry owners suffered severe losses as a result.
Meddling middlemen
Even though the government had fixed a price of ₹1,080 for a load of two units and ₹1,620 for three units, the lorry owners were forced to shell out up to ₹3,000 for a load, due to the interference of middlemen belonging to the ruling party. Due to this, the lorries could not supply sand at the government-fixed rate to the consumers.
Mr. Sella Rajamani alleged that following the Madras High Court’s ban on sand quarrying in Tiruchi and Karur districts, people with vested interests were illegally lifting sand along the banks of the Cauvery and the Amaravathi during night hours and smuggling the same to Karnataka and Kerala. Due to this, the government was suffering a huge loss of revenue.
The government has allowed lifting of sand by bullock carts for local construction activities at the rate of ₹70 per cart.
More than 500 loads are being lifted from every quarry through bullock carts. But, the middlemen collect the bullock cart loads and market the same at a very high price.