CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has sought the Centre to delegate powers to regularise violation cases relating to mining to the State government as 2,048 mines/quarries were shut down for not having environment clearance.
Tamil Nadu Minister for Industries, Mines and Minerals M C Sampath on Tuesday met the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Harsh Vardhan in New Delhi and submitted a memorandum regarding the issue.
“Since the powers to regularise violation cases are with the Centre, we requested delegation of such powers to the State treating it as a special case in order to regularise 2,048 mines/quarries shut down in Tamil Nadu,” Sampath told Express.
The memorandum sought delegation of powers to deal with violation cases to the State as per section 23 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 or can be entrusted to the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority, an arm of Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
Citing the delegation of such powers to Haryana in 1999 in connection with the Aravalli mining issues, it said if a similar relaxation could be given to the existing lessees and allied industries, it will benefit from this window.
Sampath also called on Union Ministers Piush Goel and Nirmala Sitharaman.