Will request CM to give 30 minutes of his time to resolve sand removal issue: Srinivas Poojary

Udupi: Leader of the Opposition in Legislative Council and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kota Srinivas Poojary said that he has requested Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy to solve the long-pending sand removal issue in Udupi district.

Speaking on the issue Srinivas Poojary said that for the last few months sand removal had become one of the dominant issues in Udupi district.

The State government had, in the beginning, stated that the problem had to be solved at the level of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in Delhi, therefore a delegation of legislators from here had gone to Delhi, he said.

He further informed that Kumaraswamy had come to Udupi district for getting health treatment and soon he will request the latter to give just 30 minutes of his time and call the Deputy Commissioner and all the legislators of the district to resolve the sand issue before he leaves for Bengaluru after his health is rejuvenated.

A few days ago Kumaraswamy had himself held a meeting of 13 legislators from the coastal districts in Bengaluru and in that meeting he had assured them of solving the sand removal issue. Then, Minister for Mines and Geology Rajashekhar Patil visited here and promised to solve the problem. But the issue had remained unresolved, he informed.

However, the lack of resolution of the sand removal issue had pushed a lot of workers in the construction and other related sectors to hardship. Only approval by the seven-member committee at the district-level was needed for permitting removal of excess sand. The other necessary permissions had already been obtained, he added.