PANJIM: Chief Minister Laxmikanat Parsekar on Wednesday said that sand mining in the State will begin from November and that the new rules would be notified by Friday.
Speaking to the media, Parsekar said that at a meeting on Wednesday guidelines have been formulated which have to be strictly adhered to.
“We have gone ahead formulating the terms and conditions and framed guidelines, rules and regulations which will be notified on Friday,” Parsekar said.
Giving details he said the State has received 550 applications so far and in the first phase 88 to 90 applications would be cleared.
“Only traditional businessmen who were in this business in 2011 will be given renewed licences. Only one licence would be issued per family,” he said.
He added that those who had applied for places which have not been notified will be asked to give preference of three notified places from which one would be finalised.
Regarding taxes, he said the government would charge 10 percent tax per cubic meter. “Each truck carries about five meters so it roughly comes to about Rs 200 per trip in taxes for government,” he said.
Last month, the Goa State Environment Impact Assessment Authority granted environmental clearances to district collectors of North and South Goa, permitting manual sand extraction by traditional methods in 24 clusters, both riverine and estuarine.
This brought relief to those in the sand extraction business, including consumers, as the construction industry was badly hit by the ban on sand extraction.
The authority permitted non-mechanized sand extraction using traditional methods in 14 clusters in North Goa and 10 clusters in South Goa, rejecting extraction in two riverine clusters in South Goa, at Pilliem village in Khandepar, Dharbandora and in Shirvoi village in Quepem, along Kushawati River.
Pilliem was not considered because of its immediate proximity to the quarry along the river bank while in the case of Shirvoi, it was found that there is no proper access to the site to enable transportation of extracted material.
The authority decided that no sand extraction will be permitted between 6 pm and 6 am. It was also decided that sand extraction would not be permitted during the monsoons from June 1 till September 30.
