Plea against mining in Kanniyakumari transferred to Madras High Court

CHENNAI: A division bench of the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court has ordered the transfer of a PIL petition seeking to restrain the authorities concerned from granting permission for mining beach sand minerals from the Chinnavalai fishing hamlet in Manavalakurichi village in Kanniyakumari district to the principal seat at Chennai.

When the hearing on the PIL resumed before Justices MM Sundresh and N Satish Kumar on Tuesday, the judges were told that a batch of similar petitions was pending before a special bench of the Madras High Court. Accordingly, the judges ordered the transfer of the matter to the Madras High Court.

The PIL petition was filed by one C Xavier, a resident of the hamlet. When it came up before the Madurai bench recently, the government advocate took notice for the local District Collector, the SP and the RDO and advocate G Muthu Saravanan for the Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL), the third respondent.

According to the petitioner, shadow societies had been formed by sand mafias with the alleged connivance of the IREL in Manavalakurichi. The official had recommended to the Kanniyakumari District Collector to grant permission to the sand smugglers to carry out mining minerals from the seashore of his village and in this connection, the formalities were almost over. Societies had been formed to extract the minerals, petitioner had further alleged.

Meanwhile, IERL local head PK Jena has filed his counter, denying the allegations levelled by the petitioner. The allegations are completely false. Terming the societies as ‘mafias’ was malicious. The contentions are unjustified, he said. 

Cop moves Court for advance bail in gutka scam case

Chennai: V Sampath, Inspector, SIPCOT, at Arumuganeri in Thoothukudi district, who feared arrest in connection in the multi-crore gutka scam case, has moved the Madras High Court, seeking advance bail. Justice M Dhandapani, before whom the plea came up for hearing on Tuesday, ordered notice to CBI, returnable by October 22. According to petitioner, the CBI had raided his houses at Royapuram but found nothing. The CBI probe clearly revealed that neither his relatives nor himself had any involvement in the alleged crime, he said.