Mangaluru: The BJP in Dakshina Kannada held a day-long protest in front of the Mini Vidhana Soudha in Mangaluru on Tuesday, seeking solutions to the laterite stone and sand shortage crisis. BJP district president Sathish Kumpala alleged that the series of meetings attended by assembly speaker UT Khader and ministers in Bengaluru and Mangaluru to simplify rules pertaining to sand extraction and laterite stone quarrying in the coastal districts have not yielded any results. “They have been trying to misguide people by giving false promises,” he alleged.Sathish said that the govt has not come out with a comprehensive solution to the issue of increased royalty and restrictions on laterite stone quarrying in the coastal districts. The royalty for laterite stone quarrying was increased to Rs 282 per tonne even when Kerala levies only Rs 32 per tonne. Meanwhile, there is an inordinate delay in the renewal of licences for laterite stone quarrying by the department of mines and geology, he said, adding that stone quarrying has been stalled in the district for nearly four months.Meanwhile, he said that sand extraction from the CRZs in Dakshina Kannada has been stalled due to the delay on the part of the govt. He said thousands of workers engaged in the construction industry are jobless due to the crisis, and the situation has resulted in a huge loss to the district’s economy.Dakshina Kannada MP Capt Brijesh Chowta said that the crisis has halted development projects on one hand, and on the other, shattered the dreams of the poor to build homes. Construction workers and contractors are left unemployed, he said.“Due to the Congress govt’s negligence and shameless policies, the lives of thousands of daily wage workers’ families have been affected. The construction sector has suffered losses amounting to hundreds of crores of rupees. The Congress govt has imposed unnecessary restrictions on red stone mining and has been giving empty promises to resolve the issue for the past three months, causing delays,” Capt Chowta said.A memorandum was submitted to the chief minister seeking solutions to the issue. MLAs Umanath Kotian, Y Bharath Shetty, D Vedavyas Kamath and MLC Kishore Kumar Puttur were present.
