Now, get sand at cheaper rate in Nawanshahr district

Tribune News Service

Nawanshahr, February 5

In order to provide sand to the public at a cheaper rate, the district administration has made two sand sites at Khoja and Burj Tehal Dass villages operational.

The sand here would be loaded onto trolleys manually and the use of mechanical methods, such as JCB, etc., won’t be allowed on these sand quarries, which are part of the 16 sand sites across the state.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Rajeev Verma said the sand mines made operational today in the district would function from 7 am to 5 pm up to March 31. After that the timing would be changed from 6 am to 7 pm. The labour for loading may be arranged by the vehicle owner on its own. He said the sand slip of Rs 954 was issued to the first trolley of Kulwinder Singh from the Khoja site, which doesn’t include the charges of labour.

He said there were clear instructions from the Punjab Government that sand extraction would not be allowed across the district except the authorised and earmarked sand quarries in the district. He said the police had been strictly instructed to keep full vigil on these authorised quarries and no one would be allowed sand extraction after the specified time. He said the fixed price of sand is Rs 5.50 a cubic foot at the pithead of mine (excluding 5 per cent GST).

AAP leader Lalit Mohan Pathak said this would bring great relief to the people who would get sand at a cheap price for building houses and other construction works. “The major benefit will go to those workers, who will get employment at these pit heads for loading sand,” he said.

DSP Ranjit Singh said the sand-carrying trolley should have double tyres for safety. It should be well covered and should not cause trouble to passersby.

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