Thursday, Apr 24, 2003
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Tamil Nadu
By Our Special Correspondent
When the Opposition raked up the issue in the Assembly, she also announced a Rs. 5-lakh grant for the family of the official, R. Shanmugasundaram, who died trying to stop sandmining in the Palar bed. Five police teams were formed to nab the culprits, six lorries involved in the accident seized and eight persons arrested, said Ms. Jayalalithaa. A lorry driver, Kumar, who was arrested and remanded to judicial custody yesterday, gave a confessional statement that he had driven the lorry, which knocked down the revenue inspector. And, quoting from her mentor, MGR's famous film song, ``If anyone commits a wrong and commits it knowingly, I will not spare him even if he were God,'' the Chief Minister assured the House that the Government's efforts would continue to curb illegal sand smuggling. Replying to an Opposition-sponsored special calling attention motion on the issue, the Chief Minister also quoted another MGR song to suggest that theft continued and so were the efforts to stop theft. In a detailed statement, the Chief Minister said that on the night of April 19, the Kancheepuram tahsildar, I. Jayapaul; Shanmugasundaram; the office assistant, A. S. Raju, and the village assistant, Venugopal, drove down to Pazhayaseevaram in a Tata Sumo to check whether sand theft was taking place on the Palar river bed. The team, which stayed there overnight, went to the Palar bed early on April 20, on noticing six trucks entering the river bed to smuggle sand. The truck drivers tried to flee the place, and Shanmugasundaram flashed a torchlight and signalled them to stop their vehicles. But one of the truck drivers, abused the revenue inspector and ``with intent to murder him'' rammed the vehicle into him and sped. The other five lorries too fled and Mr. Shanmugasundaram died on way to hospital.
Reply to charges
The Chief Minister also chose to respond to the charges levelled by the Opposition, especially the Congress Legislature Party Leader, S. R. Balasubramaniam, that the police could not even find out the lorries involved in the accident and that no statement was obtained from the driver, who was arrested. The police had the details of the six lorries and their registration numbers and the arrested driver had confessed to the crime, she said. Ms. Jayalalithaa said the Rs. 5-lakh grant was to honour the official for his extraordinary courage and commitment to duty.
Cong. calls for probe
Earlier, Mr. Balasubramaniam demanded a commission of inquiry to probe ``extensive'' sand smuggling in the State. He also asked the Government to provide a Rs. 5-lakh compensation for Mr.Shanmugasundaram's family. The CPI (M) floor leader, J. Hemachandran, said the Revenue department alone could not stop sand smuggling and ``active participation'' by police was necessary. In Kanyakumari district, a bridge was on the verge of collapse, thanks to unchecked sand mining, he said. V. Sivapunniam (CPI), drawing the attention of the House, to the menace of sand mining, said that sand from the Cauvery bed was being packaged as ``Cauvery sand'' and sold in Kerala. The All-India Forward Bloc MLA, L. Santhanam, also called for stringent action against lorry drivers involved in sand smuggling and the forces behind the illegal mining.
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