Amidst much expectation among farmers and poor landowners who had lost their land and livelihood due to rampant granite quarrying in Madurai district, the High Court-appointed one-man Sagayam committee is likely to start the probe into the multi-crore scam here from Wednesday.
Mr. Sagayam, who first officially raked up the scam, when he was Madurai Collector, in May 2012, will arrive here on Wednesday.
Ever since the High Court ordered his appointment as Legal Commissioner in September 2014, expectations run high among the farmers in retrieving not only their lands, but also irrigation tanks and channels that were destroyed due to quarrying and dumping of quarry waste.
Mr. Sagayam in his initial report said the government exchequer had incurred a loss of Rs. 16,000 crore due to illegal quarrying.
His successor, Anshul Mishra, made a detailed enquiry into the scandal that had taken place for more than a decade. He formed 18 teams, each led by an officer in the rank of Deputy Collector, to survey 175 granite quarries in Melur and Madurai North taluk. Mr. Mishra also deployed an unmanned aerial vehicle to survey quarries and quarried granite blocks.
The administration found that over 1.75 lakh blocks of granite were illegally stocked on government and private lands.
An official involved in the probe said the major challenge would be in the government taking over the granite blocks and auctioning them to recover the losses. Another challenge was in prosecuting the quarry lessees for violating the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, and other laws, the official added.
Madurai district police have registered 90 criminal cases in this connection. Illegal quarrying and related cases include destruction of public land, water channels, cheating, illicit possession of explosive substance, etc.
The panel would also be probing the role of government officials in illegal quarrying, an official said.
Several officials, including two former Collectors of Madurai, were booked under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, for falsification of records and wilful suppression of truth in this issue.
An office has been kept ready at the old Ramanathapuram Collector office here. The High Court had allowed Mr. Sagayam to choose his team of officials for the probe. Several NGOs have formed a forum to help the panel in its probe.
