Even while withdrawing the three-day-old strike, the Tamil Nadu Sand Lorry Owners’ Federation (TNSLOF) has decided to approach the Madras High Court demanding CBI enquiry into the alleged irregularities indulged in by the contractors and the PWD officials jointly, which led to loss of revenue worth crores of rupees to the government.
About 15,000 sand lorries, which were on strike for the past three days in Tiruchi region spread over nine revenue districts, resumed sand lifting on Wednesday.
TNSLOF president Sella Rajamani, who was suspended from the AIADMK a few days ago, announced the withdrawal of strike after an emergency general body meeting of the federation held here.
The strike was withdrawn as its continuation will only lead to steep hike in the price of river sand, which in turn will hit the entire construction industry, he said.
The strike was announced to draw the attention of the State government about the illegal nexus between the loading contractors, politicians and the officials, which is thwarting government’s attempts to ensure the availability of river sand at reasonable rates to the common people by involving in sand quarrying.
On Tuesday, on the direction of the PWD authorities, the TNSLOF representatives held discussion with the contractors to sort out the issue regarding the second sale of sand. The contractors agreed to load only two units in the small lorries and three units sand in the big ones and also assured to operate the sand stockyards between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. alone.
Meanwhile, Mr. Rajamani alleged that the illegal nexus between the contractors, politicians and PWD officials had led to loss of Rs. 1,400 crores every year due to malpractices in the second sales. Moreover, the contractors are also evading Rs. 72 crore VAT to the government per year.
