Mangaluru : BJP government policies new sand policy will only benefit big entrepreneurs, alleged former minister Ramanatha Rai.

Addressing the presspersons at the Congress office on August 26, Wednesday he said,  the State government move to entrust the sand extraction responsibility to the Karnataka State Mining Corporation as part of its new sand policy would instigate illegal sand extraction while also hitting hard traditional sand mining,

Sand extraction is also underway in some new non-CRZ blocks, as of now no sand shortage is noticed as unauthorized sand mining is being held unabatedly. he said.

He also said, during the Congress tenure, the government had allowed sand extraction under CRZ by availing permission from the Union Environment Department. As many as 105 people who had sand extraction licence prior to 2011 were provided permit on the basis of seniority by the then DC. As for the rest in non CRZ areas sand extraction was allowed through tender cum auctioning process. This has even helped the government reap crores of revenues. However, the BJP government policies will only benefit big entrepreneurs, he said.

The government had earned a revenue of Rs 1.54 crore upto July, 2021. He also gave details of the earnings of the government through sand mining during the previous years which was significantly higher. Rai said in 2013-14, the government had earned Rs 3.13 crore, while the revenue earned in the subsequent years upto 2019-20 stood at Rs 3.47 crores, Rs 5.11 crores, Rs 3.15 crores, Rs 3.49 crores , Rs 4.08 crores and Rs 5.25 crores respectively.

Former mayors Harinath, Shashidhar Hegde, Kavitha Sanil and other party leaders were present.