Thoothukudi: Welcoming the order of the Madurai bench of the Madras high court to close down all sand quarries in the state within the next six months, MDMK general secretary Vaiko advised state government not to appeal against the verdict.
Responding to mediapersons after appearing before the Thoothukudi
district judicial magistrate court-II on Wednesday in a case registered against 159 MDMK men including him, for staging a black flag protest against the then foreign affairs minister, Pranab Mukherjee eight years ago on February 28, 2009, the MDMK general secretary said that this verdict was the result of the continuous struggle of various social environmental and political organisations including the MDMK. He suggested that government start working on ensuring ample availability of artificially manufactured sand, generally mentioned as M-sand so as to manage the existing sand needs of the construction industry.
Stating that the MDMK’s stand in the RK Nagar mid-term poll would be
decided at the party’s high level committee on December 3, Vaiko alleged that the present rulers of Tamil Nadu had yielded to the pressure of the central
government against the larger interests of the state. He said that he had information about the state administration receiving a letter from the Prime Minister’s office pressuring the Tamil Nadu government to issue a no objection certificate to the methane extraction project.
