The Committee of Commissioners, appointed by the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, submitted a report on Tuesday on its inspection of sand mining in Tiruchi and Karur areas. The committee comprised advocates R. Alagumani and B. Saravanan and P. Ravichandran, Head, Department of Plant Science, Manonmanian Sundaranar University.
The committee said in its report that the entire river was riddled with pits and ponds due to unscientific mining being carried out beyond permitted levels. The environment clearance and quarrying permission obtained were not in compliance with laws and were in violation of the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority clearance. In Chinthalaivaadi, two quarries were operated side by side -- one was legal and the other illegal.
The report also stated that officials in charge of the sites lacked knowledge of sand mining and that they should be trained in scientific methods of mining. They should also be trained in handling scientific tools like GPS. “It is important to conduct scientific study with the help of reputed institutions to document the mineral deposits in the Cauvery. With the licensee being the government, the rules were being easily flouted,” said the report.
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The report suggested that appointment of lifting contractor be done through an e-tender, which would ensure transparency as it increased accountability on the contractor. Since there was a significant improvement in the supply of sand through e-booking, this method could put a check on illegal mining and ensure that mandatory parameters were followed.