After knocking on doors of several officials to put a stop to indiscriminate sand mining on the Palar at Thottalam, residents opposing the sand quarrying activities have sent an email to the Prime Minister’s office seeking the Centre’s intervention to ban mining.
The email, which has been sent on behalf of villagers of A.Mottur, one of the several affected villages located along the Palar riverbed, has sought cancellation of sand quarry at Thottalam near Madhanur.
V. Ranjith Kumar, a resident of A.Mottur and an advocate, who has sent the email, said the letter along with photographs and videos was sent to the Prime Minister’s office through the public relations office nearly four days ago.
“Sand mining has been stopped at Thottalam three times, the last one being in 2010 after villagers protested. Our aim is that there should be no sand quarrying activities anywhere on the Palar riverbed in Vellore district,” he said.
In the letter, the residents said the officials of the district administration, Public Works Department and Mines were providing false proceedings to continue sand quarrying at Thottalam. They said that the sand mafias were digging more than 30 feet sand here for the last six months.
“The quarry area is already declared as over-exploited by the State government through a government order dated March 2, 2012. The Central government too had announced that the ground water level was low in the district,” he said.
They have urged the Central government to take immediate action and appoint a commission to visit the sand quarry and submit a report. The petition has sought banning of sand quarry in the jurisdiction of the district.
As per the conditions laid down, only 36,365 units of sand should be mined from the riverbed. “But this many units of sand had already been dug up on a single day. At least 1,500 tractors, including those from other districts, have camped here for quarrying sand,” he said.
He added that at least 30,000 loads of sand were quarried everyday. As a result of indiscriminate sand mining, ground water levels have decreased largely in the area.
There are at least 50 villages in and around the quarry, he noted.
