Pics: Umesh Marpalli

Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (HB)

Udupi, Mar 23: Members of district unit of Tipper Owners and Drivers’ Association staged a protest demanding solutions for problems of working class, in front of DC office, Rajathadri Manipal here on Thursday, March 22.

Pramod Shetty, engineer, addressing the protestors he said, “People in the district are struggling to get sand for construction works. After 18 months of ban on sand extraction, it was restarted for name sake. Some people speak about ‘M-sand’ unit. There is no M-sand unit in Udupi. The district administration has to give permission to extract sand from river banks. This will help in economic development of the region.”

Raghupati Bhat, former MLA Udupi, said, “We have protested many times earlier. But it is of no use. The Mining department files case for simple issues. The district minister and deputy commissioner have to pay attention. Instead of solving problems, the DC is simply arguing. Sand is a natural asset. Hence, the concerned department has to pay more attention towards sand problem.”

Prithviraj Hegde said, “More than 100 GPS sand tippers were blocked, because of some fault. Within 15 days, the government has to find a solution. The mining department has provided us poor quality GPS which show wrong locations. When there is ample sand available in Udupi district, why should we import from other districts?”

The members demanded that the district administration should withdraw ban on tippers and should not impose any fine on them and also that the department should stop filing cases on tipper drivers and owners. Only few of them have licence under CRZ, hence tipper owners do not to get even a single trip in a day. All sand bars should be opened.

Gunakar Shetty, president, Tipper Owners and Drivers’ Association, Satishchandra, vice- president, Tipper Owners and Drivers’ Association, Raghu Bhandary, Shridhar Bhandary and Sathish Poojary were present.