MADURAI: Thousands of people, including villagers and traders, took a 16-km-long march from Narasingampatti village, which is part of the Nayakkarpatti Tungsten Block in Melur, to the Head Post Office in Tallakulam in Madurai city to stage a protest demanding the union government entirely scrap the tungsten mining project.
The protesters also urged the state government to declare the Mullaiperiyar irrigation areas in Melur taluk as a protected agricultural zone in the current Assembly session to ensure that projects like tungsten mining cannot be implemented in the future.
Though the Madurai police denied permission for the rally and hundreds of police personnel were deployed along the route, the protesters reached the destination as planned and staged an agitation against the union government.
It may be noted that the Union Ministry of Mines on December 24 requested the Tamil Nadu government to keep the process of issuing the Letter of Intent (LoI) to the preferred bidder, Hindustan Zinc Limited, for mining of tungsten in Nayakkarpatti Tungsten Block in Madurai on hold.
The union ministry requested the Tamil Nadu government to keep the process of issuing the Letter of Intent (LoI) to the Hindustan Zinc Limited, for mining of tungsten in Nayakkarpatti Tungsten Block in Madurai on hold, citing representations received against auctioning of the block over the existence of biodiversity heritage site within the block area.
The ministry, as per a press statement, had also asked the Geological Survey of India (GSI) to explore the possibility of redefining the block boundary by excluding the biodiversity site.
The statement from the mines ministry came two weeks after the TN government passed a resolution in the Assembly on December 9 against tungsten mining and demanded that the Union government cancel the project. Chief Minister M K Stalin had also written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 29 urging him to drop the proposal.
Speaking among the protesters on Tuesday, Tamil Nadu Farmers Association president PR Pandian said the people had gathered on their own to safeguard their farmlands, temples, archaeological monuments, and water sources.
“The Union government alone cannot be blamed for the mining plan as the state government knew about the project. Chief Minister MK Stalin should declare the 48 villages in Melur taluk as protected archaeological and agricultural site during the ongoing Tamil Nadu Assembly session.
Respecting the feelings of these villagers, the central government should cancel the licence awarded to Hindustan Zinc Ltd,” he said. South Zone IG Prem Anand Sinha and Madurai City Commissioner J Loganathan supervised the security deployment.