CHENNAI: A PIL plea has been filed in the High Court to quash the permission granted to quarry sand from Cauvery riverbed in Sarkar Manapalli village in Namakkal district.
A division bench of Justices S Manikumar and P T Asha before which the petition from P Arjunan came up on Friday, issued notices to Namakkal Collector and State Level Impact Assessment Authority, returnable in three weeks.
Petitioner said apart from use in agricultural activities, the river is the only source of drinking water for people living in and around the village. While so, the PWD Executive Engineer had proposed to conduct mining activity in the riverbed in 12 hectares and it was approved by the Collector and other departments. However, no environmental clearance was obtained from the authority concerned on the ground there was no forest land within 500 metres from the riverbed. In fact, forest land is situated within 60 metres.
A burial ground was also situated within 100 metres of the riverbed, the petitioner said.