Stunned at the disappearance of a hillock measuring around one km in length and 20 metres in height at Keezhavalavu, Legal Commissioner U. Sagayam directed the officials of Tamil Nadu Minerals Limited (TAMIN) to produce the accounts of mining.
“TAMIN should be one of the richest public sector units by now,” Mr Sagayam observed when a TAMIN official said over 1.25 lakh cubic metres of granite was cut out of Villoothu hillock.
The place, where the huge hillock once stood on over 15 acres, now has a huge 20-metre-deep pit.
Mr Sagayam said mindless mining activity had broken the link of water supply to Poorankulam tank which was part of a chain of tanks, including Chuttipanayankulam and Pillayarkulam.
While lease was granted to quarry granite in a patta land in close proximity to a few tanks in the area, the waterbodies had become defunct as partly their beds were also quarried. “There is no trace of existence of tanks here. Rock formations that stood close to the tank are now lying below the bed level,” he said. Similarly, ayacut of these tanks was affected and farmers had to migrate from the villages, he added.
Pillayarkulam was fully filled up with waste and one of the quarry operators had set up a workshop for trucks and machinery. “The minimum safety distance of 10 metres from road was not provided,” an official said.
At Navinipatti, farmers complained that a cart-path-cum-channel supplying water to Oothankulam was destroyed by a local quarry operator. Similarly, a large number of boulders were stacked on the irrigation tank. “Over 50 acres of fertile land was left uncultivated due to this,” one of them said.
Mr. Sayagam asked the officials about the steps taken to remove the granite blocks from the tank.
In Rengasamypuram, M. Muthiah of the Communist Party of India complained that 18 houses constructed at an Adi Dravidar colony were destroyed by dumping of granite waste. The house of his father Murugan, a freedom fighter, too was not spared by the indiscriminate blasting of rocks, he complained. The villagers also complained that the official machinery, from top to bottom, was hand-in-glove with those involved in illegal granite quarrying.
“Mindless mining activity had broken the link of water supply to Poorankulam tank which was part of a chain of tanks”
