Tadepalli: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy slammed the opposition TDP for mud slinging on the state government which is regulating sand mining in the State and the recent statements of Chandrababu Naidu and TDP leaders about construction workers losing employment due to sand mining regulations.

Speaking to the District Collectors and SPs in a video conference about the Spandana Redressal programme on Tuesday, the Chief Minister declared that Sand Week programme will be taken up in all the districts, which will be monitored by Collectors and SPs. He also asked the DGP to directly monitor this programme.

He said that we can proudly declare that corruption has been arrested after the new government reviewed the new sand mining policy and regulated it. He said that it was only due to the extensive sand mafia and the rampant illegal mining that took place during the earlier regime of Chandrababu. Now with the Government taking over sand mining operations, the whole process has become manual without the use of machinery. This leads to transparency in sand mining and also providing more work for the construction workers, he clarified.

YS Jagan said that there were rampant irregularities in the state sand mining earlier and the present Government is talking all measures to curb this.

Talking about the heavy rains affecting the sand mining, YS Jagan said that it was a good sign and that rains would bring in fresh sand into the reaches.

Slamming the TDP leaders allegations that sand mining was not being done on time, he said that it could not be done in the past 90 days due to the heavy rains. By the end of the week we can expect the floods to recede and can restart operations, he clarified.

He also said that any form of negative comments and criticism about the sand mining policy should be condemned and curbed.

He also made it clear that not a single lorry laden with sand should leave the State borders. He directed the State DGP Gautam Sawang to ensure strict vigil at the Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu borders for this purpose.

More than 70 places have been identified with sand reaches and if anyone wants to transport sand until 20 kms distance can pay challans at the Village Secretariats for this. He asked the District collectors to personally monitor these operations. Rs 4.90 is being charged per Kilometre to transport sand and if anyone is interested, they should come forward and file applications in the Village Secretariats, he said.

Despite the fact that there were 267 reaches, we are able to mine from only 69 reaches, he said. The situation will improve once the floods recede and sand will be available in plenty, the Chief Minister expressed his confidence. Until then sand mining operations in the 70 reaches identified should continue, he concluded.

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