MANGALURU: Dakshina Kannada district administration has made it mandatory that sand mining should be carried out manually from next season onwards.

The district administration has included manual extraction as the first condition. As per the CRZ rules, sand mining is allowed using traditional boats of 12-meter length and boat should be registered with the department of mines and geology. Sand extraction should not commence before 6am and no activities allowed after 6pm. Transportation of sand is allowed in trucks of six wheels only.

 Licence holders should not use bulldozers, earthmovers, mechanised boats and dredging machines while carrying out sand mining on river beds. The district administration has also made it mandatory for all trucks that transport sand to have GPS in it within a month.

Mines and geology department deputy director  K S Nagendrappa said the licence holders will be permanently blacklisted if they are found using machines to extract and load sand and action will be taken against them under Karnataka Minor Minerals Concession Rules 1994 and Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.