KERALA

 UDF In Dock Over Order On Sand Mining

THE Congress(I) led UDF government of Kerala recently issued sanction for sand mining at Alappuzha seacoast to a private company for 20 years.  This sanction is in clear violation of the promise of earlier chief minister A K Antony and with no consideration of a number of cases pending at the High Court. One will recall that an earlier move regarding sand mining was a matter of widespread agitation under the leadership of V M Sudheeran, a Congress(I) MP from Alappuzha. The agitation was withdrawn on assurance of the then chief minister. Alappuzha coast is having a width of 40 to 50 kilometres and sand mining in this area will cause much hardship to the people and to the eco-system by leaving all these areas in waters.

V M Sudheeran, CPI(M) district secretary M A Baby and others have declared that sand mining in this area would be resisted at all cost. M A Baby said the latest sanction is simply a betrayal of the people who had earlier gone on an agitation on this issue. (INN)