RANCHI: Amid a sand crisis in Jharkhand, Chief Minister Hemant Soren announced during Tuesday’s monsoon session of the state assembly that sand will be provided free of charge to the poor, exempt from income tax, for house construction.According to Soren, the issue of sand is being raised again and again in the House, which is required for the construction of Abua Awas, PM Awas, or individual houses by the poor across the state, and they have to bear the brunt of the rising sand prices. Speaking in the Jharkhand Assembly, Soren said that the decisions were taken after the issue of rising prices of sand due to its scarcity came to the attention of the government.“Since the rising price of sand was being raised in the House, I want to inform the House and its members that sand will be made available for free to those who are non-taxpayers in the state,” said the Chief Minister.”The decision is being taken considering that the poor, who are constructing their houses under Abua Awas, PM Awas, or personally, are not getting sand easily, and those who are getting it are getting it at a much higher price,” he added.Earlier, while speaking in favour of BJP MLA Anant Ojha’s cut motion on the supplementary budget, Bhanu Pratap Shahi had put the government in the dock on the issue of sand. According to Shahi, sand-filled Hyva (large truck) passes uninterruptedly, but when the poor people order sand for constructing their homes by tractors, the police seize it. Shahi also alleged that due to the bad policies of the state government, sand has become gold in Jharkhand. Whenever a government is formed under the leadership of Hemant Soren, sand disappears from Jharkhand, he said. Notably, due to the unavailability of sand, people are delaying construction work on their homes, due to which the labourers are not getting work and are hence compelled to migrate to other states. Of the about eight lakh labourers working in construction all over the state, one lakh belong to Ranchi and its surrounding areas. According to people in the sand trade, the matter of sand is being complicated in the state under a conspiracy so that the prices go up and people are forced to buy it in the black market. Interestingly, despite the fact that the state has a river every 10 to 15 km, people are craving for a handful of sand. Sand is being sold in Jharkhand at three times its actual rate. People in the sand business say that sand mining and transportation have been done without tender for the last five years. The situation is so critical that people who have to build their houses or flats are forced to buy sand at least three times higher than the actual price. Meanwhile, the supplementary budget of Rs 4,833.39 crore was passed in the Jharkhand Assembly by voice vote in the absence of BJP MLAs.
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