Call to check illegal storage of explosives at quarries

‘Operators using high-power electric detonators in the absence of inspections’

November 15, 2019 12:26 am | Updated 12:26 am IST - Kozhikode

Red alert:  A warning board erected near a granite quarry in Kozhikode district.

Red alert: A warning board erected near a granite quarry in Kozhikode district.

Despite rising incidents of quarry blasts causing irreparable damage to houses and properties, the police and village officials in Kozhikode district are yet to act against illegal storage of explosives and ascertain whether quarry owners are complying with the government’s existing mining plan.

According to environmental activists, a few quarry operators are suspected of using high-power electric detonators and caps in the absence of proper checking, besides employing untrained migrant workers in the sector.

“At least three trained persons — mine manager, shot firer, and blaster — should supervise blasts as the rule says that only trained persons with qualifying certificates can do the job,” said G. Ajith Kumar, regional coordinator, Kerala Prakruthi Samrakshana Samiti.

The samiti has found that some quarry owners are running the show themselves after securing suspicious certificates, he said, adding that it was high time officials checked the authenticity of such documents. He also pointed out that police officers who were responsible for checking such practices failed to do so for unknown reasons.

Even after the seizure of a huge cache of illegally procured explosives from Kayakkodi near Thottilpalam in January this year, the police and village officials have remained indifferent to the issue, said local environmental activists from Mukkom.

According to them, complaints filed by various action committees and individuals against granite quarries at Karassery, Kodiyathur, and Koodaranhi too have been ignored.

They also argued that the magazine houses of several quarries were located within the garden lands with no concern for public safety or environment.

There are around 120 granite quarries in the district. The facilities should ideally be resistant to fire, lightning, and other hazardous situations, and even a casual check of the magazine houses will bare the negligence in the sector, they claimed.

Meanwhile, the rural police and village officials maintained that their roles were limited, and that the issue came under the purview of the Deputy Chief Controller of Explosives. At the same time, environmental activists claimed that senior officials intervened only on getting trustworthy reports from the local officials concerned, which never happened.

“Whenever we take up the issue with the authorities, they take quarry owners’ denial on record. Once a Tahsildar visited our village at Thenaruvi following complaints of illegal quarrying. He said he had even heard the sound of quarry blasts at a time when red alert was in force in the district. However, it was not put on record, and subsequently the quarry owner got a clean chit,” recalls Rocky Chandy, a villager who is waging a legal battle to get justice. He added that the only hope was a justifiable court intervention.

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