The livelihood of hundreds of local persons associated with manual sand extraction from river Jhelum has been badly hit due “official apathy.”
These persons use boats to extract sand from the river as the irrigation and flood control department has “diallowed’ them to use modern machines.
“We are hardly able to extract a tipper full of sand after working hard for a day. Ironically, non-local firm extract hundreds of sand tippers within few hours while we are being disallowed,” said Ashiq Ahmad, a local youth extracting sand manually.
They said that they had applied for permission for dredging of Jhelum on scientific methods and also purchased modern machines for the purpose. They alleged that authorities of irrigation and flood control (I&FC) department had denied the utilization of latest technology in dredging and sand extraction from water bodies in Kashmir, citing ‘technical issues.’
“Now, we have seen as how river embankments at some places has caved in due to use of machinery by others. Do authorities close eyes when it comes to non-local firm,” they rued.
Several educated unemployed youth had purchased machines that float on water and pump sand through a temporary pipeline to offsite location. “However, they were not granted permission to operate in river Jhelum,” they said.
The aggrieved owners argue that these machines are being used across the world. “The report objecting to usage of these machines was prepared by a lower rung official of irrigation and flood control department and was not based on technicalities. It was pre-fixed plan to reject modern machines,” they said.
“The trial of machines was conducted near the river bank while as the machine is supposed to operate in the middle of river,” they rued.
“To ensure that the extracted sand by the firm is sold at good rates to benefit only few blue eyed contractors, the officials sabotaged the process of granting permission to operation of modern machines,” alleged Maqsood Ahmad, one of the machine owners.
Seconding him, Dawood Ahmad Mir, another machine owner, said “we used these machines, worth crores, for few days and the rates of sand per tipper fell from Rs 6000 to Rs 4000 within three days. Had we been allowed to continue, the tipper-load of sand would cost around Rs 3000 to Rs 3500 to the consumers,” he said.
“We have to respond to the winds of change and adopt modern technology at every level for effective results,” Mir added.
One of the senior officials of I&FC department, wishing not to be named, admitted that the machines could have been used in Zero Bridge, Qamarwari and other areas.
“These machines should have been granted permission for sand extraction. We need to extract sand from these areas for smooth flow of water in Jhelum. The owners of these machines were also ready to pay royalty to state exchequer,” he added.
Chief engineer Irrigation and flood control, Shahnawaz Ahmad Mir, said that he would look into the matter. “I think these machines could be beneficial. We will have fresh trial of these machines and we may reconsider the decision if there is no harm at all,” he added.
The livelihood of these aggrieved had been hit in 2016 after the authorities denied them permission for using of modern machines, forcing them to continue with outdated methods.