Vijayawada: Earlier, sand mafia used to quarry sand manually and transport the same through tractors, which cost around Rs 1,000 per tractor.
According to the statistics, one lorry can be loaded with 7 tractors’ load, costing around Rs 7,000. Later, the lorries will be sent to the destination at Rs 8,000 per load. The end customer would pay Rs 15,000 per lorry.
With the order of High Court, issued in last November, a lorry load will reach the customer per Rs 9,000 benefiting the customers as well as farmers, and the presence of sand mafia has been minimised.
However, the sand mafia has now filed cases against farmers of flood-affected patta lands.
Some farmers’ organisations have represented the government, by stating that it can engage workers under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA, with which the sand transport cost would be further reduced. However, this was not even discussed among the departments.
When it comes to the cases, the role of government pleaders of the departments of industries, agriculture, revenue and mining is very crucial and they must be given specific directions from the secretaries of the respective departments to file counters in the High Court.
In case, the secretaries failed to do so, bureaucrats sitting in CMO generally used to issue directions to the secretaries of the departments concerned to act immediately, which is not taking place.
The CMO, which is flooded with consultants, seems to be least bothered about the plight of the farmers, a businessman-turned-farmer from Krishna district said. He also alleged that the CMO is working against the directions of the Chief Minister on this specific issue. Sand mafia used to quarry from government lands free of cost.
