Urge Centre, State to find an alternative to sand in construction industry "Regulate inter-country, inter-State and inter-district transport of sand' "Construction of reservoirs across the Ponnai in Andhra Pradesh will hit Vellore' VELLORE: Farmers speaking at the monthly agriculturists' grievances day meeting at the Collectorate here on Friday complained of indiscriminate mining of sand in the Palar. It had resulted in deleterious depletion of sand wealth. It was time the Central and State governments found an alternative to sand in the construction industry and popularised it to prevent the indiscriminate mining, said Rama Thamizhchelvan, a farmer of Pallikonda. D. Gopalakrishnan, a farmer of Sathambakkam in Walajapet taluk, said nearly 300 lorry loads of sand were being removed from the Palar at the Public Works Department's official sand quarry in Sathambakkam. The quarrying of sand was being done without any monitoring by the PWD, resulting in huge loss to the government, besides depletion of sand wealth. The "private persons' who controlled the quarrying of sand at the site "threatened the villagers' who question the removal of sand, he said. L.C. Mani of Walajapet said false cases were filed by the police against the members of the public who complained about the illegal mining of sand from the Palar. Farmers said that the Central and State governments should regulate the inter-country, inter-State and inter-district transport of sand, which was going on unchecked. Permits should be obtained for inter-country, inter-State and inter-district transport of sand. Mr. Mani said the act of the Andhra Pradesh government in constructing reservoirs and check dams across the Ponnai in Chittoor district would result in prevention of rainwater from flowing along the river into Vellore district. It would affect the Integrated Drinking Water Supply Scheme for Vellore, Sathuvachari and several wayside village panchayats that were dependent on the scheme for the supply of drinking water. The construction of reservoirs by Andhra Pradesh across the Ponnai would permanently jeopardise the groundwater potential of the Ponnai and the Palar rivers in Vellore district, depriving the people of water, he said. A PWD official said that the department had studied the issue and sent a report to the government. Ramasamy of Vadaserry said the discharge of treated tannery effluents into the Palar continued to cause damage to agriculture in Ambur and Vaniyambadi areas in view of the presence of total dissolved solids (TDS) beyond the permissible level in the treated effluents. When asked, officials said the problem would be solved once the reverse osmosis plants of the Common Effluent Treatment Plants were commissioned. But the district administration should completely stop the discharge of such incompletely treated effluents into the Palar, he said. Another farmer said several acres of fertile land were being converted into housing sites, a trend that would result in a dangerous reduction in agricultural production. It was time that the Central and State governments intervened to prevent the indiscriminate conversion of fertile agricultural land into housing sites. The Collectors of all the districts in the country should network among themselves to ensure the supply of agricultural commodities from surplus districts to the districts where there was scarcity, he said.