The Madras high court sought response from the state government on the action taken against officials who facilitated illegal sand mining activities at Therku Kallidaikuruchi village in Tirunelveli district.

CITY
HC seeks report on action against officials who helped mining
Kaushik Kannan | TNN | Nov 7, 2020, 04:59 IST
+1
AA

Madurai: The Madras high court sought response from the state government on the action taken against officials who facilitated illegal sand mining activities at Therku Kallidaikuruchi village in Tirunelveli district.
REMOVE ADS

The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by B Sivasankar, who sought for a direction to the authorities to restrain a person from involving in illegal sand mining activities at the village. A division bench said that it was informed that a penalty of Rs 9.57 crore was imposed on a person named Manual George who was involved in illegal mining by misusing his licence issued for stock yard. It was also informed that a criminal case was registered against the person. Pursuant to an earlier directions, police officials and officials from the geology and mining department appeared before the court along with the documents pertaining to this case. The judges observed that it appears during the course of investigation, certain materials were collected by the investigation agency, which reveals the nexus between the officials and the accused, who have indulged in the commission of offence. George, a resident of Kerala, without having any quarry in the state and any land in that area, obtained permission from the authorities to establish a stock yard for storing minerals, but exploited the same by quarrying the river sand from a nearby check dam.
EXPLORE BRIEFS
NEWS IN
BRIEF
Your one-minute news catch up

‘An obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun…’
The smackdown from CNN anchor Anderson Cooper — which led to the expression #ObeseTurtle to trend on social media –came soon after the 45th US President had unleashed a cascade of lies, falsehoods, and incendiary dog whistles in the White House briefing room when it became clear he was going to lose the Presidential election.

LAC crisis: ‘Border tensions can escalate into larger conflict’
India will not allow China to shift the Line of Actual Control westwards in eastern Ladakh, and though the prospects of a full-scale war are low, border tensions and intrusions escalating into a larger conflict cannot be ruled out, said chief of defence staff General Bipin Rawat on Friday.

Katra to Baramulla in 4 hours via world’s highest bridge soon

Appeasement politics hurting Bengal’s glory: Amit Shah
Stressing that there was a need to restore West Bengal’s “lost glory”, Union home minister Amit Shah said the present “appeasement politics” in the state has hurt its age-old tradition of upholding the nation’s spiritual consciousness. “I hereby call upon the people of Bengal to wake up and perform their responsibilities to bring back the glory of the state,” he said.

Valley’s youth being pushed to pick up arms again: Omar
“In 2012, 2013, and 2014, there was barely any youth resorting to arms. The number of men, who joined the militancy over a period of 12-13 years, is now being matched in a matter of months these days,” Omar Abdullah said. “They said that by removing Articles 370 people would completely be assimilated into the rest of the country…these people are even more alienated than before,” he added.

Jharkhand decides to keep CBI out, becomes the 7th state to do so
A day after Kerala put up a no-entry board for the CBI, Jharkhand joined the league of non-BJP states revoking “general consent” for CBI to conduct any new probe within its boundaries without prior permission. Jharkhand is the 7th state where the CBI now requires either a court directive or the government’s consent to open an investigation.
GO TO BRIEFS
The judges noted that the assistant engineer of the agricultural engineering department has also facilitated the offence by creating seven farm ponds at the village. The farm ponds are created for the benefit of farmers for supplying the water with a government subsidy, but the same has been misused by the government officials, for exploiting the sand.
The status report says so far nine accused were arrested but George, who is the first accused is yet to be arrested as there are interim orders in the anticipatory bail application filed before the sessions court. The judges observed that a register has also been seized from one of the accused during the course of the investigation, wherein, the details as to the disbursal of amount to various officers has been recorded, but the same has not been investigated so far. The judges said that though law has been set in motion against George and 22 others, no action has been taken as against the concerned officials, who have facilitated George to commit the offence. Since the state government sought time, the judges sought a further status report with details about the involvement of officials; action taken against them and the register recovered during the investigation.