A Division Bench of the Madras High Court on Friday confirmed an order passed by its single judge on November 29 to close down all sand quarries in the State within six months and not to open any new quarries too in the interest of protecting the environment.
The Division Bench of Justices K. Kalyanasundaram and T. Krishnavalli dismissed a State appeal preferred against the order passed by Justice R. Mahadevan in the Madurai Bench of the High Court and confirmed all the directions issued by the latter to the State Government.
In his order, the single judge had also directed the government to close down periodically even the granite and other mineral, except jelly stone, quarries in order to maintain ecological balance.
To meet the need for sand for constructing buildings, the judge had ordered that the State could permit import of river sand from foreign countries and permit its sale here with relevant documents. He had held that even the government could import sand if there were no legal impediments.
The judge had issued further directions to keep a strict vigil on illegal sand mining by establishing permanent check posts and installing CCTV cameras at those check posts. The erring government servants were also ordered to be prosecuted and suspended from service.
