The mines and geology minister Punjab Harjot Bains on Monday inaugurated the first-ever government sale centre for sand and gravel in the New Chandigarh area of Mohali, having a storage capacity of 2 lakh tonnes.
The building material sale centre has come up in Eco City-2 in New Chandigarh area, where sand and gravel will be sold at a rate of ₹28 per cubic feet.
Addressing the media, Bains said that middlemen who are into the storage of building materials and some transporters were creating a scarcity of the construction material and selling it at ₹60 to ₹80 per cubic feet. The minister said that such sale centres would be opened in each district of the state soon and the step would help in controlling the menace of the sand mafia.
The Punjab government in August amended the 2021 sand and gravel mining policy to fix the rates of sand at ₹9 per cubic feet and also the maximum retail price of gravel at ₹20 per cubic feet, excluding transportation charges.
Illegal sand mining was among key issues in the 2022 state assembly polls and the Aam Aadmi Party targeted the previous government over the issue during the poll campaign. The minister said a fine of ₹2 lakh will be imposed on those indulging in illegal mining.
{{/usCountry}}Illegal sand mining was among key issues in the 2022 state assembly polls and the Aam Aadmi Party targeted the previous government over the issue during the poll campaign. The minister said a fine of ₹2 lakh will be imposed on those indulging in illegal mining.
{{/usCountry}}The minister said following the Punjab and Haryana high court order, the mining operations in the state are shut from November 11, 2022, but the state government was arranging the building material from outside. “To date, 90,000 tonnes have been supplied to the people,” he said.
Once the state gets relief from the high court, the prices are likely to come down further to ₹15 or ₹16 per cubic feet, added the minister. Principal secretary mines and geology Krishan Kumar was also present on the occasion.