PANJIM: Environmentalist Claude Alvares of the River Sand Protectors Network has alleged that the price of sand has shot through the roof, due to mafia controlled illegal sand mining, taking it beyond the reach of the people in Goa.
Speaking as a panellist on the 100th episode of weekly Herald TV discussion Point-Counterpoint, GOA'S ILLEGAL SANDMINING: RIVERS RAPED! Alvares said, "There is not a single person who has a valid licence to extract sand legally. "
According to him, the survival of the construction industry will be at stake if illegal sand mining continues.
Alvares informed that a proposal has been given by Goa Foundation to the State government on the lines of Telangana government that you (Government) should do all the sand extraction through contracts given to traditional extractors and further Goa government should allocate sand to each family.
“However this proposal has been on the shelf for last four years and the Goa government for some reason does not want to do this,” he said.
Alvares said that there is an established procedure for doing sand mining. One has to get an environment clearance based on a District Survey report.
“We agree with everybody that sand is an essential requirement that it must be removed from the rivers. But the condition is it should not be done by destroying the river,” he said.
“What we are saying is that sand mining should be done only by traditional people. It cannot be done by the Mafia, which brings labourers from outside. Places like Camurlim and others have good sand mining associations. However, they have all been thrown out of business,” he said, while demanding that the mafia practices have to stop.
"The public is suffering because of all this corruption. A tonne of sand costs Rs 2500 and you don’t know whether it is legal or not. In other places in Goa as well it never cost more than Rs 500 a tonne. All this illegality has put the cost of sand beyond the reach of everybody,” he said.