Udupi: Ministry of environment, forest and climate change of the government of India has given clear clarification on the issue of sand extraction from rivers and estuaries from the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) area, said MLA Raghupati Bhat on Friday, November 30.

“On the question of method of identifying the traditional coastal communities involved in the removal of sand bars, the ministry has said that the same has to be identified by the respective state government itself. On the question of whether this can be allowed for people who were doing sand extraction before or after 2011, the ministry has replied that the state government itself can fix the cutoff date,” Bhat said.

So the stand of the state government that they will give permission to only those who were doing sand extraction before 2011, can be questioned now as it is left to its discretion to decide the cutoff date,” he added.

“The discussion held with central minister for forest Harshavardhan by the delegation of MLAs and others of the district under the leadership of central minister D V Sadananda Gowda has borne fruit,” he said.

On the background of this development, K Raghupati Bhat, MLA of the district, has urged state government and the district administration, to immediately act upon the clarification of the central government and allow even the 170 persons, who have filed an affidavit in this connection in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) court, to conduct sand extraction.

Bhat also expressed his gratitude to the central government, who responded to the appeal on the sand issue that was bothering the coastal region for quite some time now.