Mangaluru: The state government, on Wednesday, ordered the deputy commissioners of Hassan and Dakshina Kannada districts to grant permits to transport sand from those districts to Tumakuru. This comes in the wake of Tumakuru district being declared “a district without sand deposits”.

The Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs T.B. Jayachandra told presspersons that neither had sand deposits been identified in Tumakuru nor had areas been earmarked for extraction of sand. Sale of filtered sand had been banned. The construction industry and development work has come to a standstill in the district. It is to tackle this crisis that the order has been given, he said.