The State government has taken stringent action against the granite quarries which involved in the illegal mining cases by suspending its operation in granite quarries. On Saturday, the industries department has suspended the quarry licenses for the 50 granite quarries which were in Melur Taluk.
Highly placed sources in the industries department said they have served suspension orders to the 16 granite companies, including PRP and Sindhu granite. The orders were sent from the geology and mining department which was under control of the industries department. The State has issued a G.O., for the suspension based on the report related to the outcome of illegal mining investigation sent by the district collector Anshul Misra and Special officer for illegal mining scam investigation John Louis.
“We have suspended the licences for 50 granite quarries belonging to 16 granite companies. In which, 16 quarries belonging to PRP have also its licenses temporarily, Sindhu granite will lose one quarry. The quarries belonging to the Madura granite, Periyasamy granite, PR granite and Kumar granite are in the suspension list,” said the official.
Explaining the reason for the suspension, the officials said that we have found huge violations in 58 quarries of the 178 permitted quarries. The report on the violations such as grabbing the impermissible land belongs to government, encroaching the water bodies and mining illegally in the encroached places were sent to the state industrial department and chief secretary through the district administration.
“In the past four month’s investigation, we found huge areas belong to Tamilnadu Minerals Limited and PWD used by the granite quarries for various purposes. Mining level in the water bodies by the granite companies were assessed by the earth laser radar meter which found huge illegal mining in the water bodies situated near the,” said the official.
Meanwhile, the geology and mining department also issued show cause notice to the granite quarries seeking the explanation on the license suspension. If the granite companies’ reply will not satisfy, we will cancel the licenses in future, he said.