The Madras High Court has ordered issue of notice on a PIL seeking a direction to the Chief Secretary and others to publish the report of the Gagandeep Singh Bedi Committee constituted to assess the extent of illegal sand mining in three districts.
Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice V M Velumani of the Madurai Bench of the High Court ordered notice to the Chief Secretary and Revenue Secretary, among others.
The petitioner, S Sureshkumar, an advocate, submitted that 71 large mines were functioning in the three districts of Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari and Tuticorin and mineral sand containing Ilmenite, titanium, etc had been illegally mined and claimed its estimated worth was put at Rs 96,120 crore.
The state government had in August 2013 up a committee headed by Revenue Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi following a report submitted by former Tuticorin District Collector Ashish Kumar that 2.25 lakh tonnes of mineral sand had been illegally mined.
Even after the receipt of the report, no action had been taken against the sand mafia and the report had also not been published, the petitioner claimed.
The petitioner said he had made a representation to the government to publish the report filed on September 17 last and prayed that the court also direct the government to take appropriate action against the culprits and recover the money earned by illegal quarrying, from them.
