Punjab: 20 more public mines dedicated to provide sand at affordable rates

Moga: In order to provide sand and gravel at affordable prices to people in the state, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday dedicated 20 more Public mines to people in the five districts of the state for ensuring pit head price of sand at Rs 5.50 per cubic feet.

The Chief Minister, while interacting with the media in Sanghera village in Moga, said under the third phase of Public Mining sites, 20 new sites including in Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Moga, Hoshiarpur and SBS Nagar districts have been made operational on Friday, increasing the total number of operational sites to 55 across the state. He said that the state government will soon operationalise 150 public mines across Punjab. Bhagwant Mann said that the state government has eradicated the sand mafia which had flexed its muscles in the past to ensure that people get cheap sand.

The Chief Minister said that now the sand will be sold at just Rs 5.50 in each of these public mining sites thereby giving a major reprieve to the people. He said that only manual excavation of sand will be permitted in these public mining sites and no mechanical excavation of sand will be allowed.

Bhagwant Mann said that till now 5.82 lakh metric tonnes of sand have been used by people from 35 public mines adding that now these 20 mines provide 18.29 lakh metric sand to people.