MADURAI: Seeking the union government to cancel the Tungsten mining project in the district, protestors on Tuesday started a rally from Narasingampatti village towards the head post office in Tallakulam in Madurai city. The rally has been temporarily halted in Mattuthavani before it resumes in the afternoon.
The Union Government granted licence to The Hindustan Zinc Ltd., a subsidiary of Vedanta Ltd., for mining tungsten in 5,000 acres across ten villages in Melur taluk, Madurai district on November 7, 2024. Following this, the villagers, environmental activists and farmers were continuously staging various types of protest, demanding the union and state government to cancel the licence.
In the middle, Chief Minister MK Stalin wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 29, demanding to cancel the mining licence and passed a resolution against tungsten mining on December 9.
The police denied permission and hundreds of police were deployed under Madurai Superintendent of Police BK Arvind, but the rally reached till Mattuthavani. Traffic has been diverted in various places. Police have been deployed in various locations to control the expected crowd.