Madurai: Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday assured the court that they will ensure sand quarrying operation in an environmentally sustainab-le manner across the state.
Girija Vaidhyanathan, chief secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu, made this submission in the counter-affidavit filed before a division bench comprising Justices K.K. Sasidharan and G.R. Swaminathan which heard a batch of petitions seeking a direction to the government to completely ban the illegal quarrying activities in Cauvery and Coleroon rivers.
Based on this petition, the court already ordered an interim stay on August 12 restraining the sand quarrying operations at river Cauvery in between Karur (Mayanur) -Tiruchy in the entire river area. “It is humbly submitted that efforts would be made to streamline the sand quarrying operations in an ecologically friendly and environmentally sustainable manner across the state,” said Girija Vaidhyanathan in the counter. S.K. Prabakar, principal secretary to government, public works department, Chennai, in his affidavit submitted that a fresh survey is being planned to be conducted by reputed institutions and experts across the stretches of Cauvery, Coleroon and other rivers in the state to estimate the sand deposits which can viably be mined. “This will be taken up as a roadmap for quarry operations in the future,” he said.
The government would soon set up a centralised control room in Tiruchy/Chennai to oversee the quarrying operations. Centralised monitoring of quarries through CCTV will be taken up through live streaming from this control room. Steps will be taken to set up a robust customer care centre in place to answer the queries pertaining to new developments in sand supply (TN Sand Application) and to receive complaints pertaining to illegalities,” said Prabakar adding that CCTV would be fixed across the quarries in the next two months and IP cameras are planned to be set up in all Earthmovers to monitor overloading.
The department would be taking capacity building and sensitisation of PWD officials on environmental and legal aspects. Hence the principal secretary requested the court to vacate the stay against quarrying operations.
