Team Herald
PONDA: The ban on mining has made sand costlier and beyond the reach of the common man to construct a house on account of the shortage of the granular material.
The Ponda locals have demanded an early solution to the crisis as the common man cannot afford to construct a house due to skyrocketed sand rates. With the matter in court, the permits have been pending due to the ban on sand extraction in traditional rivers across the State, which has resulted in inflated rates.
Not only contractors but even the common man has been demanding that the government come out with a solution at the earliest as high cost of sand is not affordable to them to construct their houses.
Mahesh, a contractor from Ponda said, “It has become difficult to get sand. Even if we import sand from Kudal the rates are very high due to heavy demand. A truckload of ten metre of sand costs Rs 23,000 from Kudal. Two years ago, the same quantity would cost Rs 15,000.”
Recently, a video of a man brandishing a sword went viral at Bhoma with some sand extractors demanding a ban on the import of sand from Maharashtra. The sand extractors claim that due to the import of the granular material from Maharashtra the sand extractions activities have been delayed in Goa and due to which they have lost their livelihood.
Pondaites have called upon the government to take the Bhoma incident seriously.
They said that such incidents are taking place as the locals are unemployed due to ban on sand mining since three years and there is uncertainty over its resumption.
Premandand Gaude a resident of Marcaim said, “Goa government should come out with an early solution to lift ban on mining as the skyrocketing rates of sand in Maharashtra are not affordable to Goans. Many people have kept their house construction work pending.”
