Effective monitoring system needed to check quarrying: HC

Madurai

Disposing of a petition that sought a direction to the authorities to take steps against the excess quarrying in Virudhunagar district, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court said that it was necessary to put a monitoring system in place.

A Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice R. Hemalatha observed that it was necessary that the licensing authorities put a system in place where quarrying activities of the licensee would be monitored on a periodic basis, through a chain of command, which should be held accountable.

The judges said that it was public knowledge and must be judicially recognised that licences were obtained for a small area, but large areas were mined. The officers responsible for the checking, sometimes turn the other way.

While it is not the court’s intention to generalise and paint all officials in the same brush, a system must be put in place where the monitoring can be effective and purposeful and the licensees under constant fear that any attempt at excess mining would result in a penalty that may not be worth taking the risk, the judges said.

The judges took note of a report submitted by the advocate commissioner in the case that said that there was no excess quarrying in the region and disposed of the petition filed by P.T. Azhaguraja of Virudhunagar.