A petition was filed before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday seeking the constitution of a State-level Monitoring Committee for river sand and other sand quarrying and regulation of online registration for purchasing sand.
Hearing the petition, a division bench of Justices M. Venugopal and Abdul Quddhose directed that notice be sent to the Chief Secretary and other respondents, seeking their response within four weeks.
Advocate M. Rajendran, the petitioner, said that the State had not constituted the committee even after a court direction.
The committee should have a retired High Court judge as chairman, one retired district judge for each of the four zones (Chennai, Tirunelveli, Coimbatore and Tiruchi), one member-secretary at the head office, an expert in water resources management and environmentalists, as per the direction of the court, said the petitioner. He further stated that in online registration, though the lorry owner had to register the transporting vehicle and the public should submit the registration number of the lorry, they had to pay the money demanded by the owner. The public had to pay for every load, apart from the actual cost of sand. Thus, sand was being sold at a higher rate.
‘Rules flouted’
In spite of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, and the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Illegal Mining, Transportation and Storage of Minerals and Mineral Dealers’ Rules, 2011, framed to restrict and prohibit illegal mining operations, natural resources continued to be exploited.
The rules were not properly implemented and sand was being sold to neighbouring States, claimed the petitioner.
It may be recalled that the High Court had stayed sand mining between Tiruchi and Karur on the Cauvery riverbed in August.