MANGALURU:
Civil contractors in
Dakshina Kannada district say that they are forced to stop the construction work due to lack of sand. Contractors have warned that they will have to launch protests if the government fails to ensure supply of sand in adequate quantity.
As many as 238 contractors registered under Civil Contractors Association have warned protest if the district administration does not relax rules and make sand available in the open market. Lack of sand supply has led to black market and thereby construction work in the district has affected.
Association president M Purushotham Kottary said the
sand mining has been stopped completely in the past four months since July. “Contractors are now forced to stop the work, including the construction of small houses, if the
sand shortage crisis continues. At present, only 50% of the construction work is in progress as there is insufficient supply of sand. The crisis has not only hit contractors in large way, but also those labourers, who depend only on daily wages. It is the responsibility of district administration and the department of mines and geology to make sand available for construction work,” Kottary said.
Kottary along with other members of the association said many of them are not in a position to repay loans. “Like farmers, we are also trapped in debt trap. If the crisis continue like this, some of us may also have to think of committing suicide,” Kottary said.
He said the sand shortage crisis is not because of non-availability of sand. “It is a man-made crisis. Shortage is only due to failure on part of the district administration that delayed the process of identifying sand blocks. Further, due to delay on part of the government in renewing licence for sand miners. We have decided to hold protests if our demands are not met within a week. We are also mulling over taking legal recourse to find solutions to the issue,” he added.
