Illegal sand mining in Arani river in Satyavedu: Ramaiah
Sand smuggling to TN a loss to AP revenue
AMARAVATI: TDP politburo member Varla Ramaiah on Saturday urged Minister for Mines Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy to take action against illegal sand mining and smuggling from Arani river in Satyavedu assembly constituency in Sri Balaji district.
Ramaiah wrote a letter to Peddireddy, expressing concern over illegal smuggling of Arani river sand to the neighbouring Tamil Nadu. The indiscriminate mining was posing the threat of flash floods to villages, paddy, sugarcane and other horticulture crops.
The TDP leader told the Minister that the situation would deteriorate if the culprits were not punished. Stern action was required to protect the Arani river bank. Illegal mining of sand has been a problem across the State of Andhra Pradesh and also its smuggling to neighbouring states.
Ramaiah said unchecked sand mining was going on at Nandanam village, Nagalapuram mandal in Satyavedu segment on the banks of river Arani. The sand mined illegally is being smuggled to Tamil Nadu, which in turn is posing a huge financial loss to the people of Andhra Pradesh in addition to loss of natural resources.
The TDP leader said that the mining mafia adopted a modus operandi to cause a huge revenue loss to the AP State. The sand was being loaded into a truck from Andhra Pradesh and accordingly a waybill was prepared. The truck crosses into Tamil Nadu and loads the sand into local Tamil Nadu trucks. The truck from Andhra Pradesh, thus makes several trips on the same waybill.
Ramaiah said that apparently, the officials are turning blind eye towards illegal mining as well as smuggling of sand at the behest of the local YSRCP leaders.
Indiscriminate and illegal mining of sand not only leads to change in the course of the river but also results in depletion of ground water. Further, the illegal mining of sand in Arani is posing a serious threat to the villages located on the banks of the river in the form of floods and flash floods.
The TDP leader termed it as surprising and shocking to see that such a huge illegal sand mining is not brought to the attention of the officials. It is widely believed that the officials are in connivance with the illegal sand mafia at the behest of the YSRCP leaders. In this regard, it is important to initiate stern action against the erring officials that have ignored such huge illegal mining of sand.
