Mangaluru: Though the Dakshina Kannada district administration had received a tremendous response for the recently introduced ‘Sand Bazaar’ mobile app to prevent illegal sand mining and check unscientific prices for sand, some loopholes have come to the fore. The manipulations by some vested interests was not allowing the people to book sand. Hence, the district administration has imposed some strict conditions on those booking sand.
District administration had restricted the procurement sand for public to 100 loads per day. Initially, the demand for sand was also about 60 to 70 loads per day. But, the officials of Mines and Geology who were entrusted with managing the procurement, witnessed a sudden spurt in the demand for sand in the recent days. Sometimes, the demand even crossed the maximum number of 100 bookings also. If the booking of sand touches 100 loads per day, then the people needed to be wait for another day. Later, the officials found that the truck drivers themselves booked sand through ‘Sand Bazaar’ mobile app though there was no demand from the public and sold it for higher price.
This was failing the actual purpose of bringing transparency in the system of procuring sand. Hence, the deputy commissioner has decided to put some restrictions on those booking sand online.
As per the modified system, those who book sand should furnish the project details and the licence number of the construction.
Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner S Sasikanth Senthil informed that additional conditions were introduced now in order to bring further transparency in the system. “When we closely observed the booking system of sand through ‘Sand Bazaar’ app, we came to know that truck drivers themselves book sand, eyeing for more profit. In order to curb such a lobby, we decided to put additional conditions on booking sand now. Though there have been some hiccups in procuring sand from the last few days, it would be streamlined shortly”, he said.
The ‘Sand Bazaar’ app was designed under the theme, ‘From shore to every door.’ Earlier, there was no fixed price for a load of sand and the middlemen used to demand more money from the public. But in this new system, the district administration itself fixes the price for sand and procures it as per the demand of the public. The customer can track all the procedures of registration, vehicle booking, sand transportation through the mobile app.
