Moves to ban illegal sand mining in Jaffna

A special discussion was held at Social Services and Social Welfare Minister Douglas Devananda's office headed by the Minister to look into complaints he received concerning the unprecedented soaring of sand prices in Jaffna peninsula.

Immediate solutions were found for problems concerning sand mining and its distribution. Accordingly, sand mining carried out from 9.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. was changed from 5.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. extending the period allowed for mining sand.

Transport charges paid to tractors engaged in transporting sand was increased to Rs. 900. Steps were also taken to grant loans to purchase tractor spare parts that were to be brought down from Colombo and to transport 500 tractor loads daily from places of mining to Kudathanai area.

It was also decided to first tractor load from Kudathanai to distant places and thereafter send the load to nearby places whilst increasing the number of vehicles engaged in sand transport. Devananda said steps were taken to ban sand mining at Manatkadu and to assess immediately the price of sand mined in the Jaffna peninsula.

The Minister also instructed officers to carry out inspections monthly at the places of sand mining to streamline the sand mining process.