THOOTHUKUDI: The state government has served notices to sand mining barons in the three southern districts of Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, and Kanniyakumari, and has sought to recover `3,032.77 crore towards royalty and costs for the beach sand minerals (BSM) mined and transported illegally during the pre-ban period (before 2013). Of all the companies, the government is set to recover Rs 2,668 crore from VV Minerals alone.
Notices have been issued to 41 lessees in Tirunelveli and six lessees each in Kanniyakumari and Thoothukudi districts. The state government in 2013, had appointed senior IAS officer Gagandeep Singh Bedi to verify the 52 mining leases granted to private companies in the three districts, following the detection of large-scale violations. Subsequently, mining and transportation of BSM was banned. Bedi had submitted his inspection report to the Madras High Court by 2017.
Based on the approved mining plans pertaining to each leasehold area, Bedi's report rendered illegal mining beyond the quantity permitted for production, transportation of excess minerals, and mining minerals not permitted for production in the approved plan. The quantum of minerals mined and transported by the private lessees during the non-scheme period also amounts to illegality. The court had appointed Amicus Curiae Dr Suresh, who also derived analytical quantification of the raw sand quarried illegally and major minerals.
Tirunelveli
According to the show cause notice issued to the Transworld Garnet India Private Limited, which had 14 mining lease areas in Tirunelveli, the company had illegally quarried 21.67 lakh tonnes of raw sand from over 94.75 acres at Karaichuthu Uvari. The firm had exported 6.98 lakh tonnes of garnet despite having permits for only 1.85 lakh tonnes, during the period between 2000-01 and 2013-14. The notice, underlining the illegal transportation of 6.12 lakh tonnes of garnet, had sought to recover Rs 271.93 crore towards cost and Rs 8.15 crore as royalty.
Of the 27 mining leases granted in favour of VV Minerals in Tirunelveli, the Bedi-led special team revealed illegal mining of 188.47 acres in 15 mining leases. Amicus Curiae Dr Suresh had found that as against the government-issued transport permits for 83.74 lakh tonnes of raw sand, the company had illegally mined 37.53 lakh tonnes of raw sand. However, as per Bedi's report, VV Minerals had illegally mined a total of 33.62 lakh tonnes of raw sand from the non-leased out areas in Tirunelveli. From this, over 28.63 lakh tonnes of garnet, ilmenite, rutile, zircon, sillimanite, and leucoxene had been extracted.
VV Minerals had carried out illegal mining largely at K Uvari, Thisayanvilai, Karaichuthupudur, Radhapuram, Thiruvambalapuram, Vijayapathy, Koodnkulam, Levinjupuram, Chettikulam, and Irukkandurai in the district. The Tirunelveli district administration had provisionally calculated a revenue loss of `2,146.36 crore towards cost of minerals and `48.82 crore towards royalty due to unlawful mining of 27.06 lakh tonnes of BSM. The authority is likely to initiate a separate recovery process for 79,960 tonnes of garnet and 77,206 tonnes of ilmenite illegally mined during the 2001-02 period.
Thoothukudi
In connection with the unlawful transportation of 42,092 tonnes of heavy minerals from one lease area, granted to Industrial Mineral India Private Limited, sprawling 90.55 acres of coastal poramboke lands in Vembar and Periyasamypuram, during the period from 2011-12 and 2013-14, the Thoothukudi district collector had sought explanation over recovering Rs 80.73 crore towards the cost of minerals and a sum of Rs 1.77 crore towards royalty. The quantity of 42,092 tonnes of major minerals includes 15,304 tonnes of garnet, 23,894 tonnes of ilmenite and 2,894 tonnes of rutile.
The state government had proposed to recover Rs 4.77 lakh towards royalty and Rs 1.62 crore towards cost of minerals from Transworld Garnet India Pvt Ltd for unlawful transportation of 1,989 tonnes of garnet and sillimanite, in 2012-13. On the illegal transportation of 1.7 lakh tonnes of garnet, rutile, and ilmenite between 2011 and 2014, the state had sought explanation from VV Mineral over a royalty Rs 4.62 crore and Rs 212.23 crore as cost of the mineral.
Kanniyakumari
With regards to illegal mining at six leases areas in Kanniyakumari district, the state government had issued notices to VV Mineral seeking to recover Rs 249.96 crore towards cost of mineral and Rs 6.11 crore towards royalty for the illegal mining and transportation of 1.27 lakh tonnes of garnet and 1.66 lakh tonnes of ilmenite between 2008-09 and 2013-14. A senior official told TNIE that the government would serve notices to the miners for illegally mining BSM in the post-ban period as well.