The suspension of Senior IAS officer and former Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary K. Gnanadesikan, Commissioner of Geology and Mining Atul Anand, and six other government officials has led to lot of disquiet in the administrative circles.
A delegation of officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) on Tuesday met Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohan Rao and expressed their “concerns” over the development.
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While the State Government did not spell out the reasons for their suspension, one IAS officer claimed that action was taken against them for reportedly endorsing a report of a panel of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, which gave a clean chit to beach mining firms during a joint inspection in April 2015.
This was in variance with the findings of a State inquiry committee headed by IAS officer Gagandeep Singh Bedi in 2013.
The joint inspection report came into focus on Monday when leading beach sand mining baron Vaikundarajan of V.V. Minerals had cited it in his defence in a statement released to the media against the backdrop of his brother V.S. Kumaresan alleging massive illegal mining by the firm, at a press conference a day earlier.
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The report had said that no mining was being carried out by V.V. Minerals and other firms in Kanniyakumari, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli districts, since the State Government issued an order banning beach sand mining in August 2013.
Besides, it said the firms had adhered to all guidelines and regulations.