Stop privatisation of sand mining: TDP

Amaravati: TDP MLC Buddha Naga Jagadeeswara Rao on Wednesday accused the Jagan Mohan Reddy government of causing severe suffering to the people of Andhra Pradesh by privatising the total sand mining reaches in the State without trying to solve the problems of the construction industry.

Jagadeeswara Rao deplored that over 2 lakh mining and transport workers would be thrown out of their job works because of the latest privatisation policy of the Jagan regime. Already, the YSRCP has done serious injustice as its dubious previous policy has caused sand shortage and threw over 25 lakh construction workers out of work.

In a statement here, the TDP MLC said that since the YSRCP came to power, most workers in the 125 allied sectors of the construction industry lost their livelihood opportunities. Over 60 construction workers committed suicide unable to find works to support their families. Now, within hours of introducing the new privatisation policy, Panchayat Raj Principal Secretary Gopalakrishna Dwivedi has announced a steep hike in price of sand from Rs 375 per tonne of sand to Rs 475.

Jagadeeswara Rao recalled how the previous TDP regime has provided sand free of cost to the people at that time when the government's policy breathed a new life to the construction activity in the State. At that time, a tractor load of sand cost just Rs 1,200. But now, it was costing nearly Rs 4,000. The new privatisation policy of Jagan Reddy would cause a further rise and up to Rs 7,000 per tractor.

The TDP leader alleged that the JP Power Ventures was expected to make Rs 3,000 crore per year by mining and selling a lot more sand than expected. The State government was mentioning that mining of only 2 crore tonnes takes place every year under the AP Mineral Development Corporation. But in reality, the ruling YSRCP leaders were illegally and unauthorisedly mining and transporting sand up to over 5 crore tonnes per year, he alleged.

The MLC asserted that their party would do everything possible to stop the privatisation of sand and would not allow the JP Power to start its operations. Their party would also stand by the side of over 2,000 workers of APMDC whose jobs were threatened because of the latest privatisation policy.