Sand Reaches Only To Central Govt Institutions As Priority: Peddireddi

AMARAVATI: Brushing aside the allegations by Opposition TDP leaders that the Andhra Pradesh Government is allocating sand reaches to private entities, Minister for Panchayat Raj, Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy made it clear that the Sand Reaches in State will be handed over to Central Government Institutions as priority.

The Minister said that the Department of Mining and Geology (DMG) has written letters to eight institutions, of which NMDC and MSDC have shown interest in taking up the sand reaches excavation, adding that the contract will be given to the lowest bidder. He stated that the TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu has been intentionally creating false rumours that  the State is handing over the reaches to private parties, but ironically it was Chandrababu who has looted huge amount running into thousands of Crores of rupees in the name of free sand policy and brought his close associate Shekar Reddy into the State. The State Government brought in a sand policy to put an end to the sand mafia in the State and supply sand in a most transparent manner.

Meanwhile, Minister for Civil Supplies, Kodali Venkateswararao (Nani) slammed Chandrababu Naidu for his baseless allegations on the sand issue. Unlike during the TDP government, where large-scale illegal sand mining was encouraged, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy brought in a refined sand policy to put an end to all kinds of illegal activities, leaving no room for corruption and further supplying sand in a transparent way. He said that Chandrababu Naidu bluffed the public by announcing that the sand reaches were given to women self-help groups, but not a single woman was seen mining the sand, instead they were maintained by his close aides.

The public also witnessed how TDP MLA Chintamaneni Prabhakar assaulted a  female government official for not supporting his illegal sand mining.  The minister criticized Chandrababu Naidu for looting thousands of Crores in the name of free sand policy and said that he had  no moral right to talk on the sand policy.

The New Sand Mining Policy was introduced in September 2019 and later necessary amendments were made to the AP Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1966 (APMMC). Subsequently, the government constituted the GoM, which made recommendations for upgrading of the policy. As per the policy the Central government agencies/Central government PSUs will undertake sand excavation, storage, and sale on first priority.