THOOTHUKUDI: The Natural Resources Department has sought a Detailed Project Report (DPR) from a consultant to induct Tamil Nadu Minerals Ltd (TAMIN) to supply brick earth and clay for chamber brick industries in a bid to remove middlemen for such tasks.
Speaking to TNIE, Natural Resources Minister TK Prabhu said the TVK government is determined to remove intermediaries so that the government can generate revenue and manufacturers get clay and earth seamlessly.
It is alleged middlemen played a key role in the supply of raw material during the previous governments.
The brick kilns across Tamil Nadu provide jobs in rural areas and supply red bricks for the construction industry. The brick manufacturers are granted a short-term permit for excavating top soil and clay earth from agricultural lands under Rule 44 of the Tamil Nadu Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1959, and Rule 12(2A) from waterbodies like tanks and dams. Rule 19(2) seeks Environmental Clearance (EC) from the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) to excavate brick earth and clay from private patta lands to make them cultivable.
However, local strongmen associated with ruling political parties influence mining companies for the supply of earth for brick chambers and kilns.
According to the Federation of Brick Manufacturers Association, nearly 800 brick chambers and more than 50,000 brick kilns operate across Tamil Nadu. Each of the chambers produces over 50 lakh red bricks in a year. Each of the units requires over 6,000 units of clay earth. Often, 20,000 red bricks are produced in a day.
Procuring licences for excavating clay and brick earth without middlemen who take the role of “mining companies” are unavoidable, say the members.
The federation members recently submitted a petition to Minister TK Prabhu, seeking a licence for excavating clay earth directly by the chamber operators so that intermediary mining companies could be eliminated, and also regularise the supply chain so that the government generated revenue and the brick price would be reduced.
Speaking to TNIE, federation president K Rathna Shekar alleged that under the previous governments short-term licences were obtained by intermediary companies for supplying the clay and brick earth at a high price.
“The geology and mining department officials direct us to approach the middlemen for obtaining a lease to excavate clay. They demand hefty bribes several times that of the actual fees for the licence,” Shekar recalled.
Dubious deals couldn’t be avoided for excavation licence and the clay for production, he further claimed. Another brick chamber operator said intermediary companies will supply clay and brick earth by any means, even by illegal mining, after compromising with officials of the geology and mining department.
Another brick manufacturer noted that securing a licence under Rule 19(2) is a difficult process as it takes two years to obtain Environmental Clearance from the (SEIAA).
“The farmers who lease the field to excavate the topsoil will not wait for two long years,” he said.
Even for excavating the top soil from private patta lands, the intermediaries intervene and fix the price, he added.
The brick manufacturers also appealed to the minister to extend the three-month short-term lease period to six months and also requested licences for desilting the sediments, i.e., the “vandal” deposited in the waterbeds of tanks and dams.
A DPR has been sought from a consultant to draft TAMIN to tender a privateer for the excavation of soil from land and silt from tanks.A government official will be deployed for monitoring the excavation site or the tank, and reports will be submitted duly. Accordingly, the supply of clay will be streamlined, so that no intermediary companies intervene, Minister Prabhu reiterated.
