Bengaluru: The Department of Industries and Commerce has notified the guidelines in respect of the State Government’s New Sand Policy-2020 in the State Gazette.

The State Cabinet had approved the new sand policy  during the Cabinet meeting on April 30 and subsequently, Governor Vajubhai R. Vala has given his consent.

As per the guidelines detailed in the Gazette notification, sand mining and sale of sand will henceforth be done under the close watch of Government agencies. The Department of Mines and Geology, in association with Revenue and other Departments concerned, will identify sand deposits along lakes, rivers and other water bodies and submit a scientific report to the District Committee. 

The Committee will go through the report and give permission to the respective Gram Panchayat for sand mining. The sand miners will have to sell sand only at the rate fixed by the Government and not above that.   A five-year licence can be issued for sand extraction along rivers, reservoirs and backwaters. The sand so extracted will have to be transported to required destinations only in GP-enabled heavy vehicles such as lorries and sand extracted from lakes, ponds and other minor water bodies at the Taluk-level will have to be transported in bullock carts and tractors. 

Also the sand extracted must be delivered based only on online bookings made by customers. The policy also gives scope for continuation of sand mining in Patta lands. The policy envisages constitution of a High-powered Committee headed by the State Chief Secretary to monitor the compliance of the policy  guidelines by sand miners. 

This apart, there will be District-level Committees headed by the respective Deputy Commissioners (DCs) and Taluk-level Committees headed by the respective Assistant Commissioners (ACs) for continuous monitoring of the entire sand extraction and transportation process, which include identification of sand blocks and deposits, mining operations,  transportation and delivery, sale price etc.