The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : “Regulate mud mining”

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Saturday, Feb 09, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

“Regulate mud mining”

K. Manikandan

Call to protect natural resources

. — Photo: A. Muralitharan

UNDERMINING: Lorries mining mud from a hillock in Keerapakkam about 15 km from Tambaram

TAMBARAM: Environment groups, farmers, and residents of villages on the city’s fringes have urged the State government to pay greater attention to protecting natural resources by regulating mining of mud for construction purposes.

On Tuesday, a group of residents in Urapakkam near Tambaram prevented the movement of lorries transporting mud scooped out from a waterbody. Residents of Keerapakkam and Kaayaar near Vandalur said the government gave permits to scoop out mud from waterbodies, grazing lands (‘meikaal’) and other spots specifically earmarked for mining.

However, they alleged that contractors were mining even spots not designated as mining zones. They tend to go beyond these areas to speed up the work of scooping out earth, a Kaayaar resident said. There is perennial demand for huge quantity of mud mined from hillocks, grazing lands and waterbodies for road construction and for constructing buildings in Special Economic Zones, commercial and industrial complexes.

Officials of the Kancheepuram district administration said contracts for scooping out mud in any source was granted under a few circumstances only, to rejuvenate water ponds and tanks under which the State government would fund the contractor on the condition that the scooped-out mud would be used only to strengthen bunds and not sold outside. Mining permits are also issued to desilt and deepen lakes.

Permits are given to contractors to scoop out mud from designated mining slots. Here contractors pay meagre sums, for instance around Rs. 80 per load to the district administration, while a lorry load of mud is sold for sums ranging between Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 to lorry operators. And in the end, clients have to cough up nothing less than Rs. 3,000 for a load of mud.

Recently in Keerapakkam village, lorry owners protested the frequent change in tariff fixed by the contractor. When contractors frequently increased the rates, they had no other option but to pass on the charges to their clients, lorry owners said. Issuing permits to more than one contractor for a single mining site could put an end to monopoly, they said.

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