TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: The directorate of mines and Coastal police raided Akada, St Estevam and seized one canoe and arrested 10 persons for illegal sand mining.
The 10 – labourers –will be produced before the SDM Wednesday, Old Goa PI, Manoj Mardokar told media Tuesday.
It may be recalled that last month coastal police seized five canoes and a FIR was filed against 50 labourers at Cumbharjua after raids were conducted by the mines department officials and police.
The sand mining operations were taking place at Cumbharjua – on the river between Cumbharjua and Akada.
As of Tuesday, there are no legal sand mining permissions in the state and the state government has constituted two committees – headed by North and South Goa Collectors – to head the panels to give new permissions and regulate manual sand mining.
Sand, a major component in the real estate industry, one of the mainstays of the local economy, retails for from Rs 300 to Rs 500 one cubic metre excluding the transportation cost.
The labourers are usually brought in especially for the job and they charge around Rs 200 per cubic metre of sand. The profit in the business is around Rs 3,000 to Rs 9,000 per day, depending on the season.
Meanwhile, the directorate of mines and geology has said in an affidavit filed before the court that it has sent a proposal to the government to allow delegation of powers of inspection of illegal sand extraction to the panchayats secretaries, chief officers of municipalities and the commissioner of the corporation of the city of Panaji.
