Demonstration on April 1 in a bid to save natural resources of Tenkasi
The Hindu
The Tenkasi Natural Resources Conservation Association has decided to organise a demonstration on April 1, ‘All Fools Day’ as illicit mining and uncontrolled transporting of stones and minerals to Kerala continue with no measure to check this business.
The Tenkasi Natural Resources Conservation Association has decided to organise a demonstration on April 1, ‘All Fools Day’ as illicit mining and uncontrolled transporting of stones and minerals to Kerala continue with no measure to check this business.
Dismayed over the officials inaction to curb this illicit business, former MLA K. Ravi Arunan, who is also the president of the Association, has sent a petition to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin seeking effective action to save the district from this.
The former MLA said the stones being mined in Tenkasi district were being transported in 300 lorries every day with each long-chases vehicles carrying up to 60 tonne of stones to Kerala, a State that does not allow mining in any form. Even though the permits given for taking the stones to Kerala were being used illegally, the officials, who are aware of this, were helping.
While returning to the quarries in Tenkasi, the lorries bring electronic, biomedical, plastic, poultry and marine wastes and dump it on the open grounds to cause health hazards, he charges.
“A random check of the CCTV cameras fitted at the check-posts close to Tenkasi – Kerala border will narrate clearly about the number of lorries carrying stones, M-sand and other minerals to the neighbouring State and the waste these trucks bring back from Kerala,” says Mr. Ravi Arunan.
He says that the modified heavy vehicles were carrying up to 13 units of stones (60 tonnes), which is being sold at Rs. l.82 lakh in Kerala even though each pass is given for carrying 3 unit per vehicle. Even though overloading is a punishable offence, no truck drivers respect this rule as the officials are mute spectators.
“We know that our natural resources are being plundered by a few people with political and caste backing. But we’re helpless as our hands are tied by a few powerful people based in Chennai. So, we’ve to be only spectators,” said a senior government official.
In 2021, five women from Mayithara, four of them MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) workers, found a common ground in their desire to create a sustainable livelihood by growing vegetables. Rajamma M., Mary Varkey, Valsala L., Elisho S., and Praseeda Sumesh, aged between 70 and 39, pooled their savings, rented a piece of land and began their collective vegetable farming journey under the Deepam Krishi group.