Mangaluru: “The Sand Booking system set up through the Sand Bazar App has totally collapsed”, said President of Civil Contractors’ Association (CCA), Mangaluru, M Purshotham Kottary addressing a press meet at the Mangaluru Press Club. “This has hit contractors hard. There is total corruption going on between the sand Mafia and district administration – the Sand that was available for Rs 30/cubic feet or Rs 6,000 per truckload of 200 cu.ft is now sold in the black market for a price of over Rs 10,000 per truckload. Continuing confusion over mining of sand in CRZ/ non-CRZ areas has only added to the present chaos”.

He added, “Since we are very much affected by the non-availability of sand for construction for the past 10 months, CCA is planning on staging a protest in the near future, if the shortage of sand issue is not rectified by the Administration. There is only lip sympathy for this issue and the stage has come for CAA members to raise their voice in the best interest of stakeholders. Even though the elected representatives and the district authorities have been promising to address the issue for nearly a year, there has been no action. The contractors are not able to meet their contractual obligations as the labor has returned to their native places due to the pandemic and the unavailability of sand has only made it worse.”

Also speaking during the press meet, Dinkar Suvarna, the Vice President of CCA said, “Contractors are facing the heat of delays in construction from RERA, the regulator that imposes monetary fines for default. We have been consistently appealing to all those concerned, right from the district minister in-charge Kota Srinivas Pooajry, MLA Vedavyas Kamath, MP Nalin Kumar Kateel, and the DC Dr. Rajendra, to address the issue. Other concerned organizations like REDAI, ACCE (I), Kanara Builders’ Association, etc too have joined with us on this issue. We hope that the concerned authorities will come up with a solution soon to rectify the short supply of sand”.