AP to regij sand policy to weed out corruption

Vijayawada, Oct 02: Andhra Pradesh government will soon overhaul its sand mining policy to weed out corruption. According to reports, the issue was discussed threadbare at the Cabinet meet headed by the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu here yesterday. The government wants to revert to the earlier process of auctioning sand reaches to improve transparency and to rein in sand mafia. The Chief Minister is understood to have told his cabinet colleagues that auctioning sand reaches would weed out corruption. The government is planning to release a white paper on sand mining and supply and people can suggests ways to improve the system. Government handed over sand mining to DWCRA women groups to empower them but the rules resulted in shortage of sand. Similarly, at many places, the political leaders are controlling the sand reaches resulting in huge loss to the exchequer. The new sand mining policy fetched government Rs 780 crore in a year compared to Rs 60 crore per year in united AP. A decision on revamping sand policy would be taken in a week.