Tamil Nadu to recover ₹5,832 crore from miners
The Hindu
It also decides to constitute a SIT to probe illegal mining since 2000-01 and seized 1.5 crore tonnes of available stock
The Tamil Nadu government has informed the Madras High Court that it has decided to recover losses to the tune of ₹5,832.44 crore from private beach sand mineral exporters, seize all the stocks available with them and constitute a Special Investigation Team to probe illegal mining since 2000-01.
In a counter-affidavit filed before Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, who were seized of a suo motu PIL taken up in 2015, Industries Secretary S. Krishnan sought the court’s nod to seize 1.55 crore tonnes of stocks and hand them over to Indian Rare Earths Limited, a central PSU.
Firmly backing the three reports filed by amicus curiae V. Suresh, who had estimated the quantum of illegal mining and the loss to the public exchequer based on Central and State government reports, the Secretary said the government had accepted his findings, and the Collectors of Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari would be directed to recover the losses.
Further, the Collectors would be directed to lodge complaints against the miners before the special courts concerned, for violation of the provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act of 1957, the Secretary said.
The counter-affidavit pointed out that the government had originally issued 64 beach sand mining licences (52 in Tirunelveli and six each in Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari districts) to seven miners. However, following complaints of large-scale illegal mining, the government banned the mining as well as the transportation of beach sand minerals in 2013.
A special team, led by IAS officer Gangandeep Singh Bedi, was constituted to probe the allegations. The team filed reports in 2016 and 2017, stating that 1.01 crore tonnes of raw sand (90.29 lakh from Tirunelveli, 10.29 lakh from Thoothukudi and 54,446 from Kanniyakumari) had been mined illegally from 234.55 hectares in the three districts.
Subsequently, in April 2017, the High Court constituted another team, headed by IAS officer Satyabrata Sahoo, to assess the stocks available with the private miners. The team filed a report in April 2018, stating that 1.55 crore (1.37 crore in Tirunelveli, 12.09 lakh in Thoothukudi and 5.93 lakh in Kanniyakumari) tonnes were available in the three districts.