Close illegal quarries in Madurai’s Kallanai, surrounding villages: Plea

Madurai: Madras high court on Monday sought a response from the state on a plea seeking a direction to the authorities to conduct a joint inspection and close all the quarries and stone crushing units which are functioning without a proper lease and in violation of the statutory provisions, in Kallanai and surrounding villages in Kalligudi taluk in Madurai district.A division bench of justice G Jayachandran and justice K K Ramakrishnan was hearing a public interest litigation filed by R Subramaniyan, a farmer from Kallanai village.The petitioner stated that the livelihood of people from agrarian villages, namely Kallanai, Nedungulam, Chinna Ulagani, Periya Ulagani, Thoombakulam Pudur and Achankulam, in Kalligudi taluk, depends entirely upon agriculture, groundwater and river-based irrigation. Gundar river is the primary source for irrigation and groundwater recharge and also sustains wells and borewells used for drinking and domestic purposes.He stated that stone crushers and blue metal quarries are operating in gross and wilful violation of the Tamil Nadu Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1959, the Mines Act, 1952, and other applicable statutory provisions, thereby causing serious environmental damage, depletion of groundwater resources and destruction of fertile agricultural land parcels in the affected villages.He stated that the quarries and tar manufacturing units operating in the locality are illegally discharging sludge-laden and stone waste into the Gundar river, which rendered fertile agricultural land parcels barren, caused irreversible degradation of soil quality and resulted in a situation where cultivation became impracticable, thereby severely affecting the livelihood of the farming community. This also affects the natural water flow of the river.Hence, the petitioner moved courtMeanwhile, people from several villages staged a protest by blocking the district collector K J Praveen Kumar's car inside the Madurai collectorate campus on Monday, seeking to close the quarries functioning in Kalligudi. Police officials held talks with villagers and pacified them to withdraw the protest. However, since the villagers continued the protest, police detained them. Later, a few representatives from the villages met the collector. After the collector assured them that he would look into the issue, the detained villagers were let off.