Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Dec 4: Working president of Sand Transporters Joint Action Committee, Mayur Ullal, warned that the sand transporters all over Dakshina Kannada district will observe bandh on December 14, if the state government fails to meet their demand for giving exemption to the coastal districts from the proposed uniform legislation on sand mining. He was addressing a press conference here on Friday December 3.

He said that the Action Committee is thankful to the in-charge minister of Dakshina Kannada district for issuing directions to the officials to move the proposed uniform legislation before the cabinet only after extending specific concessions and spelling out special status for the coastal districts.

“As per the decision taken by the District Task Force Committee, 600 truck owners engaged in sand transportation have registered their names with the Joint Action Committee. Among them, global positioning system (GPS) is functional in 503 trucks. 70% of the officials have been trained and given full information about the GPS website and functioning. The GPS in about 150 trucks have become non-functional, as there was an expectation that the GPS will be withdrawn once the then district deputy commissioner, V Ponnuraj, is transferred. There is a provision to activate them again before December 15 without paying any penalty. The rule that these trucks should compulsorily display stickers will be fully complied with within a week from now,” he explained.

He agreed that the GPS monitoring has revealed that 15 trucks have crossed Karnataka border and entered Kerala. He felt that these signals would have emanated because there are houses in the state border or that the tippers were parked in the houses at the border for the night. He stated that those who are found to have transported sand illegally would be kept out of the Joint Action Committee.  He said that the District Task Force Committee had issued curt instruction to I – Search Company without informing his committee, seeking full details available in the site. He claimed that during the meeting with the Task Force Committee, demand for history records of the trucks was not placed, and that the said notice was served all of a sudden.

Committee vice president, Halyar Iqbal, Rajaratna Sanil, Jafrulla Karkala, K S Latif, and B S Chandru were present at the press conference.