CPI stages stir, demands lifting of curbs on sand

Vijayawada: CPI staged a protest here on Saturday demanding that the government take steps to solve sand shortage by this month-end. CPI leaders warned the government that they would lay a siege the Secretariat if the government fails to address the problem immediately.

They said that the lakhs of building workers were deprived of livelihood as building works had come to a halted owing to sand scarcity. CPI city secretary Donepudi Sankar said that cost of a tractor load of sand had gone up to Rs 8,000 from the Rs 1,500 before the elections.

As a result, all the infrastructure activities came to a halt in the last two months and lakhs of workers were in miserable condition due to lack of work, he said and requested the state government to open the sand quarries immediately to mitigate the situation.

Sankar wondered as to how the state government stopped all the sand mining operations in the state in the name of corruption under the previous government. He asked the government to take immediate action in this regard announcing new sand policy. CPI leaders G Koteswara Rao, Palla Surya Rao, T Tattaiah, Lanka Durga Rao and some others were present.