TSMDC chairman advises Rahul Gandhi to understand ground realities before criticizing Sand Mining Policy

Stating that Telangana had been implementing the finest and most transparent sand policy in the country, he said besides the official teams from the centre as many as seven states including the Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh had studied it obviously in a bid to replicate it.

Hyderabad: Coming down heavily in the Congress Party leader and MP Rahul Gandhi for his disparaging remarks against the sand mining policy being implemented in the state, Krishank Manne, TSMDC Chairman advised Rahul Gandhi to go beyond the task of script reading and know ‘for himself’ the ground realities before making wild allegations against the state leadership and policies.

Stating that Telangana had been implementing the finest and most transparent sand policy in the country, he said besides the official teams from the centre as many as seven states including the Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh had studied it obviously in a bid to replicate it.

---

Without going into facts, Rahul Gandhi had made vague allegations that sand was under the control of the Chief Minister’s family. But the stark reality was that under the leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, the revenue from mining had increased to Rs. 5,901.73 crore from meagre Rs.39.66 Crore in Congress regime.

Can Rahul Gandhi answer why the revenue from sand shot up by 149 times in BRS regime compared to the Congress Government, he questioned. “Prior to the new policy, the revenue from the sand was just Rs.39.66 crore in the period of 2007-2014. The price of sand during the Congress regime was over Rs 1500 per tonne and that too was not available on a regular basis. After the introduction of new sand mining policy 1,512.11 lakh MTs of sand was mined and supplied till October 17, 2O23.

The operations were made totally transparent. Sand was made available even during the rainy season without any shortage and rates were also under control, Krishank emphasized. Secretary Mines, Government of India not only appreciated the futuristic policy of Telangana government, but also exhorted other states to adopt the Telangana State sand mining system.

Every stage of operations starting from sand extraction to its delivery to the end-user was being monitored in a most transparent manner. Sand Mining Policy was studied by at least seven States. This included a team led by the Secretary, Ministry of Mines, Government of India . Besides this official teams from Government of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu also studied the state sand mining policy.