The High Court-appointed Legal Commissioner, U. Sagayam, on Sunday asked officials of the Public Works Department to submit a detailed report on the extent of damage caused to tanks by illegal granite quarrying in Madurai district.
During inspection of quarries in Pudhu Thamaraipatti, villagers complained to him about farmlands and channels being encroached upon due to quarrying.
G. Bhooma, who owned two acres in the village, said that granite stones were indiscriminately dumped around her field, making it tough to bring in farm machinery.
R. Usha, another villager, alleged that her 3-year-old daughter, who was found dead in a field in 2008, was used as a human sacrifice by the quarry operators there.
“The police registered the case as an accident claiming that she was run over by a vehicle,” she alleged.
Inspecting a quarry, Mr. Sagayam asked officials how the dumping of granite blocks was allowed near waterbodies and farmlands as the approved mining plan usually specified an earmarked space for stacking granite blocks and waste materials.
“The blatant violation of the mining plans had been ignored by officials from the revenue and mines department and there has been a total transgression of rules,” he told them.
