PNS | Hyderabad
The Chairman of the Telangana State Mineral Development Corporation, Krishank Manne, has strongly condemned Rahul Gandhi’s allegations made at Mulugu about sand mining in Telangana.
“Rahul has become a script reader and is levelling baseless charges against Telangana’s sand policy. The Telangana Government under Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has increased sand revenue to Rs 5,901.73 crore from a meagre Rs 39.66 crore during the Congress government. Without going into facts, Rahul randomly said that sand is under the control of the Chief Minister’s family. Can Rahul answer why the revenue from sand increased 149 times under the BRS compared to the Congress government’s time? The Congress seems to have become a hub of lies,” Krishank said.
This has been done without even increasing sand prices and due to the introduction of the New Sand Mining Policy in the year 2015, he said.
“Before the introduction of the New Sand Mining Policy from 2007 to 2014, the revenue from sand mining was just Rs 39.66 crore. The price of sand was also around Rs 1,500 per tonne and even at that price sand was not available always. After the introduction of the New Sand Mining Policy by the TS Government an amount of Rs 5,901.73 crore has come into the treasury for 1,512.11 lakh tonnes of sand till October 17, 2023. The Congress made it extremely difficult for people to get sand. But under KCR’s leadership everything has been made transparent,” he said.
Sand is now available during the rainy season and rates are also under control. He stressed the fact that there has been no increase in sand prices in the open market since 2014. The TSMDC Chairman recalled that even the Centre had no choice but to appreciate the New Sand Mining Policy of TS. “The Secretary of the Union Mines Department not only appreciated the policy of KCR but also asked other states to adopt the Telangana state sand mining system,” he said.
“Before lecturing us, Rahul needs to talk to his own party units in different States, and learn how they are following our policy,” he said.
Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and a 5-member team visited the Kaleshwaram sand reaches to see sand mining. The Telangana State Sand Mining Policy is the most transparent system in which all operations starting from extraction till the sand reaches the end user is monitored in a most transparent manner. In fact, a one-member team from Chhattisgarh also came here to check out our sand policy,” Krishank said.
The Telangana Sand Mining Policy was studied by at least seven States including the Secretary of the Union Ministry of Mines, he said.
