Villagers from 10 hamlets near Ilayankudi resorted to a road roko on Wednesday.
They said though they had complained to the officials concerned, there was no action to prevent illegal sand mining. Sand miners said that they were lifting savadu soil only from private patta lands but they dug beyond permitted level, the villagers said.
The villagers detained at least 50 sand laden lorries and threatened to immolate themselves if any vehicle proceeded an inch further. There were heated exchange of words between the lorry crew and the villagers. The villagers said the district had become a hotbed for sand miners as a few activists in Manamadurai and Tiruppuvanam had approached the High Court Bench in Madurai praying for a ban on sand mining in any form.
There was a good rainfall in the south-west monsoon. The Vaigai, which criss-crossed the district for over 60 km, had a good flow. When farmers were ready to take up agriculture, sand mining activity, with the blessings of some of ruling party functionaries, dampened their spirit and damaged natural resources, villagers of Kachathanallur said.
Villagers from Pirmanakurichi said that even after submitting photographs and videos on WhatsApp, officials did not stop sand miners who indulged in destroying water bodies. On the contrary, complainants (villagers) were being booked by the police for impounding lorries, they alleged.
Tahsildar Ramesh, accompanied by police, held talks with the villagers and assured them to take legal action. The lorries were shifted to the office of Tahsildar but the villagers said that the issue would snowball into a people’s movement soon if proper action was not taken.
Last month, Collector J Jayakanthan had installed many cameras at various locations including highways close to water bodies and toll plazas and assured villagers from Manamadurai and Poovanthi that they would monitor trucks from a control room at the Collectorate.