Centre covertly approved it as 'Nayakkarpatti tungsten block', alleges Su Venkatesan at protest

MADURAI: CPM protested at Melur in Madurai district against the Centre for approving the tungsten mining project and alleged that the BJP-led Union government deliberately avoided using Arittapatti in the approval to avoid scrutiny.

The Left party’s Madurai MP Su Venkatesan led the protest and urged the Centre to cancel the tungsten mining license issued to Hindustan Zinc Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Group.

Venkatesan said the project would snatch away the villagers' livelihoods as they depended solely on agriculture. He added that people living in and around Nayakkarpatti, Arittapatti, fear that the mining project would drive them away from their homes forever. “I had highlighted the risks and hazards of the tungsten mining project during the Parliament session on November 19,” he added. But when the issue was raised, I was informed that the Centre had already approved the project as Nayakkarpatti block, the CPM member of the Lok Sabha said. He said there is no mention of that taluk and district where the project was earmarked. The Centre deliberately avoided the name of Arittapatti, declared by the State government as the first ‘Biodiversity Heritage Site’ in Tamil Nadu, to escape scrutiny, the Left MP alleged.

Venkatesan also recalled that he met Union Minister of Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy on November 21, demanding to cancel the auction of the tungsten mining block in Madurai. Further, he added that the villagers would never allow the mining project.