Amaravati, Oct 20 (IANS) Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy instructed officials to leave no scope for corruption in sand mining and supply.
He directed them to maintain transparency and reasonableness in the construction material’s supply and price.
Reddy held a review meeting of the new sand policy and highlighted that the state government was implementing the policy leaving no scope for corruption, following environmental protection guidelines.
He said illegal mining was curtailed and buyers were being supplied sand at an affordable price.
“The state should not get a bad name and any lapse in the implementation of the sand policy would not be tolerated,” he said.
Likewise, to better execute the sand policy, Reddy advised officials to increase the number of sand reaches, their capacity, efficiency and supply.
“Building up the capacity can attract large companies or even the central government institutions,” he said.
Reddy observed that the cost of sand transportation is a little too high and told the officials to make it reasonable.
According to the Chief Minister, sand price fixation mechanism should be at the constituency level and if anyone was found to be selling at a higher price than what was fixed, he said the special enforcement branch should interfere to initiate action.
Similarly, to bridge the gap between demand and supply, Reddy directed authorities to introduce a challan system where anybody paying the challan could transport sand.
He said anyone can transport sand from the reaches and provide it to the contractor for transportation.
“For the construction of government projects or housing for the poor, sand should be supplied at a subsidised price through a token system,” he noted.
The CM said locals from the same constituency can avail subsidy through token system for their house constructions and asked officials to take public opinion before finalizing the policy.
–IANS
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