Vijayawada: Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy proposes sand booking through village secretariats

Vijayawada: Panchayat raj, mines and geology minister Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy said the state government was contemplating sand booking online through ward/village secretariats in the state. He said the government was trying to check the online fraud in sand supply and had been planning other options for booking of sand.

Ramachandra Reddy conducted a review meeting with ministers and district officials at the office of the APMDC (Andhra Pradesh Mining Development Corporation) here on Monday on framing new guidelines to ensure speedy supply of sand to the people. Speaking on the occasion, he said if the if the ward/village secretariats were linked to APMDC, consumers could purchase sand easily with the help of ward/village secretariats and even villagers would have easy access to get the sand.

He said the state government was taking measures for the transparency in supply of sand. Referring to bulk bookings, he said the district-level review would be held on every bulk booking in the districts. Giving details of the stocks, he said 70 lakh tonne sand would be stored at the stock points in the rainy season and so far 40 lakh tonne was already available. The minister said the state government had given powers to the joint collectors to review the sand supplies and stocks with the officials in their respective districts.

He instructed the officials to reduce the sand digging operations at night, increase sand mining in the open reaches, use tarpaulin and plastic covers for covering sand heaps and to deliver the sand at the delivery points. He made it clear that mining should be continued as per the environmental rules.

Ramachandra Reddy informed that the government was trying to pay bills to the sand transporters in a stipulated time and vehicles should not be plied without GPS which record their path.

Ministers Perni Nani, Kodali Nani, Velampalli Srinivas, district collector Md Imtiaz and officials of revenue, APMDC and other departments attended the review meeting.