Escorted by more than 20 policemen, the High Court-appointed Legal Commissioner, U. Sagayam, began his inspection of quarry sites at Tiruvathavur on Thursday as part of his probe into the illegal granite scam in Madurai district.
Whenever he raised pointed queries at the site, revenue and mining officials did not give proper replies. Since they were asked a few days ago to come prepared for the inspection, Mr. Sagayam warned the officials that he would record their non-cooperation in his report to the High Court.
Those at the receiving end were the revenue officials from Melur, led by Tahsildar S. Manimaran, Assistant Director (Mines) A. Arumuga Nainar and a few engineers of the Public Works Department.
Furthermore, Mr. Sagayam did not make use of the senior officers named to the panel by the State government to assist him in the probe.
Since December 3, when he began the probe, he had asked the senior officials on the panel — two Assistant Directors (Mines) and Assistant Geologists (Mines) — to continue their work as he would not need their service while receiving petitions from the public.
However, when he went out for inspection, he did not take them along. Instead, he chose the two Senior Scientists from Science City, of which the IAS officer is vice-chairman.
Twenty policemen, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police T. Mangaleswaran, were part of Mr. Sagayam’s convoy throughout his inspection.
A huge posse of police, led by an Inspector of Police, was deployed at Ovamalai, a hillock of archaeological significance, at Tiruvathavur.
