CHENNAI: Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan, in a statement on Wednesday, said the government did not object to Union government’s notification, issued earlier this year, for mining tungsten in Madurai since it would have been “futile”.
“Anybody who is conversant with the style of functioning of the present union government would know that it is a futile exercise,” he said, implying that raising objections would not have yielded any results.
He was responding to the Union government’s statement on Tuesday that spoke of measures that would put the mining process on hold, following objections from political parties and the public.
The statement, however, pointed that the state had not objected to auction notification. Similar allegations were raised by AIADMK.
In his statement on Wednesday, Duraimurugan pointed out that in his letter on October 10, 2023, he had clearly pointed out how the auction by the Ministry of Mines is fundamentally flawed and explicitly mentioned that the auction could lead to law-and-order situations.
He said the Union Ministry of Mines went ahead with the auction, knowing fully well that there is a bio diversity heritage site in the mineral block.
On the Union government’s statement on Tuesday, which highlighted that the power to issue mining lease to preferred bidder was with the state government, Duraimurugan said the state government is aware that the mining lease has to be granted by it and hence reserved its right, instead of entering into a futile communication with the Ministry of Mines.
Pointing out that the Union government has now acknowledged that it can only auction, he asked why did it then go ahead with the auction despite opposition, knowing well that it had no say in the matters related to the land.