visakhapatnam the ap building and construction workers association slammed the ap government for failing to rein in sand and cement prices in the state staging a protest at the collectorate on tuesday the association members demanded that the state government immediately take measures to curb the soaring rates of sand and cement that are hurting the construction and real estate sector mentioning that sand prices have tripled in the last one year association secretary p ramana said that even though the state government has handed over the management of sand mines to dwcra groups the sand mafia continues to control the distribution of sand by purchasing sand and hoarding it pointing out that sand was available in the range of rs 2500 to rs 3000 for three units last year he said that currently sand is being sold at rs 8000 for the same quantity at the same time around eight units of sand cost rs 40000 whereas earlier it was available for rs 15000 to rs 17000 he also urged the state government to take measures to immediately crack down on the sand mafia at the same time he mentioned that cement prices have also spiralled northwards hurting the public he alleged that cement prices have increased to rs 380 per 50 kg bag as against rs 230 per 50 kg bag last year he said that while the telangana government has already called a meeting of cement manufacturers and asked them to reduce prices there was no such steps taken by the ap government with the number of development projects expected to go up in the coming days he said that if the government did not take measures to control prices of sand and cement it would lead to a massive increase in costs affecting both the state government as well as people