TN: Lack of Political Will, a Boost to Erring Stone Quarries

Quarrying businesses, either granite or stone, in Tamil Nadu are known for blatant violation of rules, rampant corruption and huge revenue loss to the government. While exploiting resources in collusion with officials continues in broad daylight, the government and the administration have made it a habit of swinging into action only when accidents are reported.

The industry received attention again after an accident in a stone quarry in Adaimithipankulam village in Tirunelveli district on late May 14.

Falling boulders in the Venkateshwara Stone Crushers trapped six workers under the debris. Two workers were saved, while four lost their lives in the tragic accident. The rescue team recovered the body of the last worker on May 22, eight days after the accident.

The quarry owners went missing after the accident and were arrested from Mangalore on May 20.

The state government and the department of mines and geology have announced compensation and actions against erring officials. The government has also ordered the district collectors to inspect all the quarries across the state.

But political parties have called for stringent actions to end the looting of natural resources and check violations of rules instead of knee jerk actions. The political connections of the majority of the quarry owners have helped them evade legal actions and plunder the resources.

QUARRY FUNCTIONED AFTER CLOSURE NOTICE

The officials from mines and geology of Tirunelveli district had issued a closure notice to the Venkateshwara Stone Crushers almost a month ago. Still, the operations had continued despite the order to suspend operations.

The accident occurred on May 14, when massive boulders in the excavation site caved in, trapping six workers under the debris more than 300 feet deep.

The fire and rescue services and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had a tough time continuing the rescue operations as continuous violations, and mass excavations beyond the permitted limits had made the site fragile for rescue vehicle movement. Initially, helicopters were deployed to identify the location of the victims.

The quarry owners have been accused of not maintaining the 10 feet minimum distance required between two vehicle paths, which apparently led to the accident.

The government has now placed the assistant director of the district mines department under suspension. The government has also ordered frequent checks in the quarries to ensure that rules are not violated. There are 1,761 stone quarries across the state, while 1,200 applications are pending with the state environment impact assessment authority for clearance.

VIOLATIONS UNCHECKED

The department of mines has demanded reports from the quarries on the safety measures and evacuation methods while opting for the GPS surveys in the quarries.

Even after the Venkateshwara stone quarry, where the accident happened, was served closure notice, it continued to operate. A similar accident has taken place a month before the accident, as per a survivor of the accident.

The IANS quoted one Murugan, a crane operator and a survivor of the Tirunelveli quarry mishap in the earlier accident.

“Twenty days before the accident on May 14, a big stone boulder had fallen as a landslide in the quarry, and we had informed the management, but they did not care. Such minor incidents later turn up into major accidents taking the lives of people like us”, he was quoted as saying.

The leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] visited the families of the victims, who hailed from neighbouring villages and small towns. The Tirunelveli district secretary of CPI(M) K Sriram questioned the grounds on which the quarry was reopened after closure a few years ago.

The CPI(M) Tirunelveli district committee held a protest seeking adequate compensation for the families of the killed workers and action against quarry owners and erring officials.

"The government and the officials must answer why the quarry was permitted to operate after being sealed a few years ago. Why was the quarry operating late at night on the day when the accident took place? Moreover, the excavation had taken place beyond 400 feet in the quarry, which is against the rules," he said.

Why the officials did not ensure the quarry's closure after being served closure notice remains a misery. The collusion between the quarry owners and the authorities has remained a reason behind such exploitations and violations.

'ARE THESE ACTIONS SUFFICIENT?'

When granite quarrying was rampant in Madurai and its surroundings, the Madras High Court stepped in 2014. It appointed U Sagayam, then IAS officer, to estimate the loss due to the malpractices. The report was submitted a year later and pegged the loss at Rs 16,000 crores. But the successive governments seem to have learnt no lesson from it.

While most of the quarry owners have very strong political links and are even activists of political parties. The accused persons in the Tirunelveli accident are closely associated with the Congress party.

The stone quarrying industry is intense in Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari districts, where many violations are continuing. Several villages have raised protests against the continuous exploitation of natural wealth and environmental issues.

The successive state governments have failed to prevent the functioning of unlicensed quarries and regulate the licenced quarries. The high court has intervened multiple times in such incidents, the recent one being the order to close 64 unlicenced quarries in the Tiruppur district.

The state government has to take a strong political decision to prevent the madness of the stone quarry owners in plundering the wealth, leading to loss to the government, the environment and the workers.