GPS system will be used to check illegal sand mining: DC

GPS system will be used to check illegal sand mining: DC

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Jul 3: DC V. Ponnuraj announced that the Global Positioning System (GPS) will soon in implemented in lorries carrying loads of sand to avoid its illegal transportation. He was speaking to reporters at a press conference held in his chamber on July 3, Saturday. He added that the government will be requested to recruit additional staff in the departments of geology and mining. Calling sand mining a “filthy business,” the DC said that authorities who try to curb illegal sand mining activities are attacked by goons.

 

 

The owners of lorries have agreed to the GPS implementation and the departments of mines and geology have planned to provide color codes for lorries carrying sand so that they can be easily identified by the RTO and the police department. Lorries will be permitted to carry sand only if their owners agree to implement color codes and GPS, he said.

Drivers of the vehicles, which have been implemented with GPS, will be given “trip sheets,” in which the driver will have to input the time and date of the trip, the number of trips made,  the place to which the sand has been taken, and the name and address of the owner. The driver will not be able to give false details because the GPS will be recording all the details without making any mistake, he said.

Maintaining the trip sheet will be made compulsory for the owners and drivers of vehicles, which have been implemented with GPS, he said. Mentioning that the  police department and the RTO will control the GPS, he said that the permits of vehicles that do not maintain trip sheets will be cancelled. Since sand is illegally transported to Kerala, where a load of sand costs Rs 25,000 – Rs 30,000, information regarding each load of sand transported will be collected from the Kerala check posts, he informed.

The DC said that the permits of nine lorries have been cancelled in the past two months of which 3 are reset and the other 6 have been permanently cancelled. The GPS system will also be implemented in private and public buses so that the authorities can easily monitor the movements of these buses. GPS will be implemented by the end of July, said the DC.