Amendment in Bihar Sand Mining Policy, 2019

• 18 Jun 2022

Why in News?

On June 17, 2022, the State of Bihar has made significant amendments to the Bihar Sand Mining Policy, 2019 under the Department of Mines and Geology.

Key Points

• DM will make settlement of all the identified sand ghats of the state for the next 5 years through e-auction-cum-tender. The settlement fee of sand ghats has been increased by 50 percent as compared to last year.
• The secured deposits and security amount in the endowment of sand ghats have been increased from 10 percent to 25 percent.
• It is known that the secured deposit was only 25 percent earlier, which was increased to 10 percent in the last few days. Now it has been increased to 25 percent again.
• The tender of the settlement holders will be valid only after paying this amount.
• This will also help in curbing illegal mining and facilitating construction activities to generate revenue to the Government along with sand availability.
• Recently, the Supreme Court had directed to prepare a mineral survey report of all the districts and had asked for an endowment of sand ghats in the districts on the basis of the report. The department then prepared the report of all the districts, which has a complete blueprint of other matters ranging from the availability of sand.
• Under the amendment, environmental clearance and other statutory clearances have to be taken only by sand miners. The mining plan will also have to be made by them themselves. Earlier, this work was done at the level of the government.