TIRUNELVELI
Residents of Soochikulam under Iurkkanthurai village panchayat in the district staged a sit-in protest on Monday in protest against the continued functioning of stone quarries close to their village.
The agitation that started around 9.30 a.m. was withdrawn in the afternoon after Valliyoor Assistant Superintendent of Police Samay Singh Meena and revenue officials held talks with the villagers and assured them that their demands would be fulfilled within five days.
Following increased complaints of illegal mining of minerals, especially quarrying of stones in Radhapuram taluk, that were often taken to Kanniyakumari and Kerala, where demand for granite stones is very high, Collector V. Vishnu recently inspected a few spots in this region along with Cheranmahadevi Sub-Collector V. Sivakrishamurthy.
Subsequently, Mr. Vishnu chaired a meeting and instructed revenue, police and mining department officials to toughen surveillance on illegal mining while marking only two routes via check-posts at Kavalkinaru and Anjugramam to take minerals to Kanniyakumari or Kerala.
Mineral-laden vehicles that use other than these two routes would be seized and cases registered against the drivers and the owners of the vehicles, he warned.
Whenever sand or stone-laden vehicles cross these check-posts, the policemen or officials deployed there would check permit details so that it could not be used again for transporting illegally quarried sand and minerals.
Anjugramam and Kavalkinaru check-posts were strengthened with CCTV cameras.
Mr. Sivakrishnamurthy, along with 30 officials, raided 19 quarries in Radhapuram taluk, mostly in and around Irukkanthurai and Koodankulam, in the first week of August. The raids that lasted for more than nine hours were conducted at stockyards and the routes being used to transport the quarried minerals.
A group of residents from Soochikulam under Irukkanthurai panchayat met Mr. Sivakrishamurthy and appealed to him to ban quarrying as the explosives being used in the quarries were causing cracks in their houses besides affecting farming operations.
“The explosion also affects children, pregnant women, senior citizens and patients living in 13 villages around Irukkanthurai. Since the quarries are still functioning, we decided to stage a road roko near our villages and come to the Collectorate,” said Suresh of Soochikulam.
Though the protesting villagers had originally planned to lay siege to the Collectorate, the police stopped them, citing COVID-19 restrictions. When the villagers were getting ready to assemble at Irukkanthurai to start their agitation, the authorities also thwarted their plan, forcing the villagers of Soochikulam to start the sit-in protest in their hamlet.
