Government incurs revenue loss by selling sand at low rates

Thiruvananthapuram: The government has suffered losses in selling sand from the State’s rivers without auction.

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India on general and social sector for the year ended March 2015 notes that there was laxity on the part of Land Revenue Commissioner to enforce provisions of the Kerala Protection of River Banks and Regulation of Removal of Sand Act.

The sale of scarce natural mineral like sand at very low rates, without resorting to auction as stipulated in the Act has resulted in the River Management Fund and the local bodies of four test checked districts suffering a loss of revenue of at least Rs. 115 crore.

Confiscated sand was also sold at lesser than stipulated PWD prices resulting in loss to the Fund (Rs. 67 lakhs).

The Government, the report says, failed to initiative sand auditing in 24 of the 44 rivers of the State despite availability of adequate funds, indicating failure to protect river banks and beds in a timely manner from large scale indiscriminate dredging of river sand and protect their bio-physical environment.