Observing that many acres of wetlands in the district had been converted into granite quarries, Supreme Court-appointed Legal Commissioner U. Sagayam questioned Revenue and Mines department officials whether proper procedures were followed for the conversion exercise.
“Before the sale of wetland for activities such as quarrying, the Collector should have carried out an inspection of the area and had discussions with the Geology and Mines Department about the same, but there seems to be no record of such procedures having been followed,” he said during an inspection of a granite quarry at Keelaiyur which used to be a wetland.
After hearing the grievances of Somasundaram, a farmer from Melapatti near Keelaiyur, Mr. Sagayam asked the Public Works Department officials on the status of restoration work carried out at the damaged channels and tanks.
“Agriculture depends on a planned irrigation system followed by our forefathers and efforts should be taken to restore the channels to their original state for the benefit of the farmers whose agricultural activities have been affected by illegal quarrying,” Mr. Sagayam told the officials.
Tanks polluted
S. Murugesan, another farmer from Keelaiyur, alleged that water at Mayathankulam tank had been polluted by explosive materials and waste from the quarries. Many other farmers told Mr. Sagayam that the CC Tank in Keelaiyur, which had a depth of over 300 feet, had been encroached upon by quarry operators since 2005.
“Before an inspection by officials from the district administration to the quarry near the CC tank in 2012, the quarry operators heaped mud and waste and completely covered up more than half of the tank. The groundwater level in the area has gone below 690 feet and we are facing a severe water crisis,” alleged K. Ravichandran, a farmer.
Inspecting the area near CC Tank, Mr. Sagayam asked the revenue and PWD officials about the mechanisms in place check the state of waterbodies and irrigation channels.
“These sorts of violations and encroachment of waterbodies should have been recorded in the ‘jamabandhi’ checklists by the officials concerned,” Mr. Sagayam told them.
