Mangaluru : The district administration on Wednesday constituted a committee to recommend measures to be taken to reintroduce traditional sand extraction from rivers in Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) areas within a fortnight.

Chairing a meeting on sand extraction here, Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim said the committee would be headed by Additional DC Kumar and comprises Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Crime), officials from the Mines and Geology Department and three representatives from sand extractors. The committee has to discuss ways and means to reintroduce traditional extraction and submit its recommendations, Mr. Ibrahim said.

Mr. Ibrahim said large iron boats resembling barges cannot be deployed for sand extraction when the process resumes after the ban— from August 16.

Only traditional wooden boats (paathi doni) have to be used for the process even as there would be prohibition on using machinery to unload sand from boats and load it to trucks.

“All such boats should be registered with the competent authority with the registration number being painted on the boats and the details should be furnished to the district sand monitoring committee. At the same time, sand transporting trucks should be fitted with speed governors as well as GPS. Every permit holder can use only two trucks to transport sand,” Mr. Ibrahim said.

These measures have become essential as indiscriminate sand extraction has extensively damaged the river banks as well as river beds, Mr. Ibrahim said.

He also noted that the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change is likely to ban permanent sand extraction from CRZ areas. In such a situation, only traditional extractors would be allowed to remove sand and transport it to the stock yard while the Public Works Department could be made in-charge of disposal of collected sand.

Mr. Ibrahim made his displeasure known over non-implementation of the ban order from June 15. Officials of the departments concerned informed the meeting that they had cleared temporary structures and other mess along river banks after the ban was enforced.

Sand Mining Contractors’ Association President Mayur Ullal alleged that the officials did not give breathing time to extractors to remove the structures and they raided a day before the ban was imposed.

However, this was rebutted by Mr. Ibrahim, who said the officials had to act after the extractors failed to stop activities even after two days of the ban.

Superintendent of Police Bhushan Gulabrao Borase and other officials were present.