CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has conveyed categorically to the union government that the State government will never allow any mining works including tungsten mining in Arittapatti and its surrounding places in Madurai district.
CM Stalin urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to cancel the award of tungsten mining rights in Madurai and instruct the Ministry of Mines to desist from floating any bids for mining without the consent of the concerned State government.
“The Union Ministry of Mines has declared Hindustan Zinc Limited as the preferred bidder of the Nayakkarpatti Tungsten block (Critical and Strategic Mineral) under Tranche IV on November 7. The above tungsten block comprises Kavattayampatty, Ettimangalam, A. Vellalapatti, Arittapatti, Kidaripatty and Narasingampatti villages. Among them, Arittapatti is a notified bio-diversity heritage site and is famous for its archaeological monuments including cave temples, sculptures, Jain symbols, Tamil Brahmi Scripts and Pancha Pandavar stone beds. Any mining activity will cause irreparable damage to these sites,” the CM pointed out in his letter to Modi.
Stalin also underscored the fact that commercial mining in such densely populated villages will affect the people in these villages. “This has caused immense anguish to the people, who fear that their livelihood may be lost forever. Hence, the Tamil Nadu government will never allow any such mining to be undertaken in these areas,” stressed Stalin.
He further mentioned the grim situation prevailing now in Madurai was due to the union government's award of tungsten mining rights and requested Modi’s immediate intervention to cancel it.
“We had already raised our concerns on such auctioning of mining rights of critical and strategic minerals, through the letter dated October 3, 2023, from our Minister for Water Resources and Natural Resources. But unfortunately, the Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines in his letter dated November 2, 2023, had rejected them, mentioning that the auction of critical minerals by the Ministry of Mines cannot be withheld, in the larger interests of the country,” Stalin expressed.