Sand supply rules liberalised for villagers

Nellore: Now, the district administration is taking steps to relax the rules for the purchase of sand in villages. There is no restriction on the sand for the local population. They need not approach the Mee Seva centres for purchasing sand online, they can simply pay the charges to the local Panchayat Secretaries through Demand Drafts and can get the stocks from the sand reaches.

Officials identified 163 reaches in the villages located in 31 mandals for the convenience of locals. It may be recalled that the opposition leaders have been staging protests on the sand policy and the government took initiative to ease the policy.

At some places, villagers have staged protests for sand supply and obstructed movement of the trucks and tractors that carry sand from the reaches who purchased online.

Currently, the district administration opened round-the-clock supervision on the supply system through a control room by deploying officials from the MEPMA and Mines and Geology wings for taking instant actions on the complaints and irregularities.

Already 4 teams have been appointed to check any deviations in sand supply and other issues. ``The vehicles transporting sand should have GPS system and we are also arranging CCTV cameras at the stockyards.

The officials at the helpline centre will be in touch with the local officials for resolving the issues instantly. Local people can now purchase sand locally approaching the Panchayat Secretaries," said DR Vinod Kumar Vasudev, Joint Collector.

He informed that the people can approach officials at the Helpline on 7901311596, 7901311600 and 9381814943 for any issues related to sand in the district.