Illegal sand quarrying rampant in Kadapa district

Kadapa: The aim of the state government in supplying sand free of cost to the people who were needy of constricting Indiramma houses, will not be full filled, instead it is being indiscriminately misused following intervention of political leaders in the matter.

Officials are forced not to take action though they were well aware of the issue. It was said that 32 per cent of sand is being misused in Kadapa district. Illegal sand quarrying is rampant in Sunnapurallapalli village in the district.

Illegal sand quarrying is also rampant at Adi Nimmaya palle sand reach where the government has set up two reaches, one is meant for supplying sand for the construction of Galeru –Nagari Sujala Sravanthi (GNSS) while the another is to supply sand free of cost for housing purpose.

Illegal mining of sand is rampant in the villages in Mandaram, Balarajupalle, Seshamamba puram, near Rajam pet mandal, Shanupu Gutti, Potladurthy, of Yerraguntla mandal, Cheruvukindapalle , of Valluru mandal, Komarolu of Khajipet mandal, Ganga varam , Nedarapeta, Sungumanchi palle, Buggapatnam , T.Sundupalle , Hasanapuram Sivalayam, Stanivagu, of Kondapuram mandal, Yerramekam palle , Abbavaram of Kamalapuram mandal, Vulavala palle , Animela of veeranayunipalle mandal, Komaram palle of Vempalle mandal, Sankara puram of Produturu mandal, Tanguturu of Nandaluru mandal and Abbavaram of Jammalamadugu mandal.

From the reaches meant for free supply of sand, leaders are supplying sand illegally to places like Bangalore, Chennai and Chittoor for building construction. ``People are not coming forward to complain to the officials with regard to illegal sand mining due to fear from political leaders. If anyone complains, he would face the wrath of leaders,’’ says a villager.

``We are not opposing the policy of the government to supply sand free of cost to the house construction purpose for the poor. But lack of control over illegal mining of sand is our main concern. Ground water levels are depleted due to unabated illegal sand mining,’’ he said.

I appeal to the administration and also Chief Minister to respond over the issue and take steps to prevent illegal sand mining,’’ said CPM district Anjaneyulu to the Hans India.

It may be recalled that with the initiation of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, the government handed over the sand reaches to the SHG women with a view to uplift their living standards. But the members of SHGs are threatened by local leaders. Chief Minister made some changes in free supply of sand to prevent irregularities.