Teams of officials will conduct simultaneous inspections in six mineral mining lease areas in Tuticorin district from Monday as part of the special probe ordered by the State government into allegations of illegal mining there.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has ordered the probe by a special team into illicit mining in six lease areas, and called a halt to the mining of Garnet, IImenite and Rutile in the district following a report from the previous Collector. The special team is headed by Revenue Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi.
According to an order of the Industries Department issued on Sunday, there will be simultaneous inspections of all the six lease sites through teams of senior officials of the departments concerned. Each team will consist of a senior Deputy Collector, an Assistant Director of Survey (along with Inspector of Survey and Staff), an Assistant Director of Mines or Assistant Geologist from the Department of Geology and Mining and a Divisional Environmental Engineer of Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.
The inspections will go on from Monday to Wednesday and again next week and the Collector and the local officials were asked to co-operate with teams by furnishing necessary records and providing assistance. After the field inspections, the Revenue Secretary would finalise the report before a period of one month.
