Close all 64 illegal stone quarries: HC to Tirupur Collector
Taking note of the magnitude of the violations of stone quarrying lease in Tirupur as pointed out by the Advocate Commissioner after due inspection, the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Tirupur Collector to forthwith close all the 64 unlicenced quarries as cited in the Advocate Commissioner’s report.
Justice R Mahadevan on perusing the report submitted by the Advocate Commissioner V Ashok Kumar, expressed dismay over the gross illegalities in the quarrying operations in Uthukuli Taluk.
While seeking to ensure that no further quarrying takes place in those sites, Justice Mahadevan sought the District Collector to initiate criminal action against those who operated the 64 unlicenced quarries as well as those who are instrumental in allowing such quarries to operate like Village Administrative Officer/Tahsildar/Revenue Divisional Officer/District Revenue Officer and other officials concerned.
Besides this, the court also directed that appropriate proceedings be initiated to recover the loss caused to the exchequer due to such illegal stone quarrying. Through another direction the court wanted the administration to issue show cause notice (s) to the licenced stone quarry operators for the violations pointed out by the Advocate Commissioner and to proceed further in accordance with law.
The bench also directed the Regional Transport Officer of the district to seize all the vehicles having same registration number and to initiate proceedings for confiscation of the vehicle(s).
Based on this, the court, while directing the District Collector to file a compliance report before September 6, held that the report of the Advocate Commissioner had blown the lid off as to how stone quarrying is being operated without even any licence or lease and thereby causing loss of thousands of crores of rupees to the exchequer besides environmental loss to the state.
“The report also reveals the apathy of the administration in not causing any inspection, much less periodical inspection, of the quarrying activities in the area, which had emboldened the violators to indulge in quarrying activities without any lease or licence,” the court recorded.