Patna,(BiharTimes): Thousands of labourers on Saturday staged a protest demonstration near Koilwar bridge on river Sone to press their demand to re-start sand-mining in the state.

As the sand mining was banned on December 31 last almost all the construction work in Bihar has come to a standstill. As the sand labourers have been rendered unemployed they are facing starvation as they are basically daily wage earners.

It needs to be recalled that the Supreme Court had asked the states to make new policy on sand, but the Bihar government continued with the old policy. Upon this the Patna high court put a ban on the mining.

Sources said that the state government wants some relaxation in the Supreme Court order.

The state government too is suffering loss of revenue due to halt in the sand mining in Bihar, which is known for exporting sand to other states. For example sand of river Sone goes to neighbouring Uttar Pradesh as it is of better quality.

However, it all depends on how soon the state government accepts the Supreme Court condition and come up with the new policy.

Meanwhile, the former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday strongly criticized the Nitish Kumar government for its failure to adopt the new sand policy before December 31.