From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji
 
Panaji, May 24: The sand extractors from across Goa, who are rendered jobless after the court order banning the activity, has now approached the state government seeking the legal way out.
 
The sand extractors have requested state chief minister Digambar Kamat to treat their business as `dredging of river’ and not `mining of sand’.
 
“If you label the activity as dredging than it can continue without any legal hurdle. Similar model is adopted in Maharashtra where certain section of rivers is given on auction for dredging from where sand is extracted,” said NCP leader Jitendra Deshprabhu, who leads the sand extractors.
 
The delegation of extractors on Monday met Chief Minister with their solution. They stated that since May 14, when local administration seized their canoes and extraction equipments, they are left jobless.
 
The chief minister has assured that the state will find solution to the issue within two days. “I have asked them to give me two days. We will have to consult law department and (state) environment ministry,” Kamat said.

The sand extractors, who have been mining in the river belt almost since Portuguese era, had faced a setback when Judicial Magistrate First Class, Pernem directed police to investigate complaint of corruption against government authorities for not acting against those involved in illegal sand extraction in coastal regulation zone (CRZ) areas in Pernem taluka.
 
“We have been traditionally extracting sand in the river. Suddenly the order was forced on us without realizing that stopping of sand extraction means all the construction activities in the state will be affected. There will be no development,” Sand Extractors Association of Goa’s spokesman Prakash Kambli said.
 
Goa government has given 59 licences to mine three river beds to mine the sand -- five in Chapora, Mandovi 26 and Terekhol 28.
 
The sand extractors are sadden as in the Terekhol river, which divides Goa and Maharashtra, there is ban for mining on Goa bank while on Maharashtra bank, the activity is going on full fledged.
 
“River basin is divided between both the states. Maharashtra has allowed the extraction by terming it as a dredging,” Deshprabhu said.
 
The environmentalists in past had raised concerns over the sand mining, which had threatened existence of three rivers in the state. They had said that the uncontrolled digging of the river bed was disastrous for the villages which have settled around them.
 
Narayan Sopte Kerkar, an environmentalist and former police officer, who resides in Keri village where sand mining is rampant, had said that saline water had already started entering into village wells.
 
Kerkar, whose complaint to the JMFC has resulted in the current ban, said that almost half of Keri village is submerged under water as river has changed its course due to sand extraction.
 
He had also alleged that the sand bars were being destroyed in the lust to get more sand.