Kottayam: The Central Government is tightening laws to prevent unauthorized mining and transport of sand.
The move is said to have been prompted as much by inadequacy of existing regulations as by the failure of state governments in stopping smuggling and illegal mining. The proposed laws with more teeth are targeted to be applicable for all states across the country and will be in the form of amendments to existing laws. The Centre has conducted preliminary discussions on this subject with different state governments, top officials of Water Resources Department told Madhyamam.
The finding of the Central ministry is that unauthorized mining and smuggling of sand is on a high scale in Kerala, and the report mentions that in all 44 rivers of Kerala, sand mining is rampant. The Centre has decided to move in the matter, after reviewing various states' regulations, including legislation passed by them, which are found to be ineffective.
The Centre has also decided to amend the law of 2015 regarding auction of mineral resources. The government blames states where sand mining has been permitted, for not being willing to tighten regulations.
It is pointed out that the state where most sand mining and smuggling take place is Madhya Pradesh, but several states including Kerala are not prepared to even collect the tax due through sand auction. This accusative mention in the Central Mining Ministry has also been acknowledged by top officials of state water resources department. There are 1,600 such cases in Kerala.
However, there is a criticism that there has been effective action in no case. The Centre's report also mentions that sand mining in Kerala is going beyond limits and mentions the districts of Kollam, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, Malapura, Trivandrum, alakkat and Trichur as areas where sand mining and smuggling is widespread.