MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Thursday sought a response from the state government on the feasibility of implementing the Mining Surveillance System (MSS), which was introduced by the central government for curbing illegal mining of major minerals, for monitoring minor minerals in Tamil Nadu, particularly river sand.
A special bench comprising justices G R Swaminathan and B Pugalendhi also wanted to know the approximate cost of installing such a surveillance system and the funds currently available in the Mineral Foundation Trust.
The court issued the directions following a memo submitted by the standing counsel representing the high court in a suo motu petition filed against illegal quarrying in the Amaravathi river.
The standing counsel suggested the use of the above surveillance system, which is a satellite-based monitoring system, to prevent illegal mining of minor minerals.
As regards the discrepancy pointed out by the court in the last hearing regarding the contradictions in the reports filed by the Karur collector on January 21 and February 5, the additional advocate generals explained that the January report contained data relating to sand theft as well as other minerals like rough stone, limestone, etc, while the subsequent report was about sand theft alone. The case was adjourned to February 23.