The Madras High Court has issued a direction to authorities not to use any machinery for sand quarrying on the Palar riverbed and in some villages in Kancheepuram and Tiruvannamalai districts till the disposal of a writ petition.
A Division Bench, comprising Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and N. Paul Vasanthakumar, passed the interim order on a petition by V. Ravikumar and two others, which sought to restrain the PWD from using machinery for quarrying and loading sand from the riverbed.
According to the petitioners, the district authorities, in their notification of April 1988, had banned sand quarrying in and around Athur and other villages.
An expert committee, constituted in the wake of Madras High Court orders, in its report to the government had stated that due to indiscriminate quarrying, riverbeds had been exposed to varying degrees. It had suggested ban on the use of machinery for quarrying and loading sand.
Thereafter, the government amended the Tamil Nadu Minor Mineral Concession rules in October 2003 and inserted a rule banning the use of machinery. Thereafter, the government took over sand quarrying through the PWD.
It made another amendment to the legislation in April 2004 stating that no machinery should be used for quarrying sand from riverbeds, except with the permission of the Industries Secretary or any other authority or officer, who may grant permission if machinery use would not be detrimental to ecology.
Subsequent to this, contractors working under the PWD started employing machinery. About 2,500 loads of sand were being quarried and transported daily, badly affecting the ecology.
About 2,500 loads of sand are being quarried and transported daily
