Anandapur: The scarcity of sand in Anandapur area of Keonjhar district has reportedly affected the construction of housing projects. This development comes amid the administration laying stress on increasing the pace of work to meet deadlines. Scores of beneficiaries have got work orders to build houses under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana’ in the NAC. However, work has been caught in a stalemate for the last four months as they are unable to get sand.
A few days ago, NAC officials informed the beneficiaries through public notifications to speed up their work to meet the deadlines. However, construction materials like sand and bricks made of fly ash are not available in Anandapur to meet their requirement, some beneficiaries said.
Sources said, since mines on various river ghats in Anandapur, Kodapada, Tukuna, Belbahali, Panchupalli, Amarang, Ghasipura, Talagan, and Bancho are lying closed, sand is unavailable for the construction of houses. “We all depend on sand mined from these quarries. As these quarries are closed, how can we complete construction. We are really worried regarding the deadline,” said Buddhadev Ram and Niranjan Mishra among the beneficiaries. They demanded that NAC authorities should take note of the sand scarcity and extend the deadline. The beneficiaries want to finish construction as soon as possible because they have to suffer from a lack of accommodation after dismantling of their old houses.
Sand mines on the Baitarani river are still not operational even though they have been leased out one and a half years back. The public hearing by the SPCB on environmental clearance for some sand quarries is over, but leaseholders are still waiting for formalities to be completed.