Madras High Court disposes plea to safeguard river sand

When the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed M Appavu, an agriculturist and former MLA came up for hearing before the first bench comprising acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and R Mahadevan, the government sought more time to file its counter. But the bench preferred to dispose the plea saying, “It is for the authorities to do the needful on the representation made by the petitioner.” 

However, it also pointed out that the government should go by its circular issued in 2012 for promoting M-Sand. Appavu in his plea had sought the state government to ban river sand mining and mandate compulsory use of M-sand as an alternative material for construction activities and to cancel the licences granted to various sand quarries. He had also contended that, in 2002, the Madras High Court while dealing with a PIL pertaining to sand mining, had directed the state government to constitute a committee to conduct a scientific survey on the river sand quarrying and submit a report. 

The committee had suggested the use of crushed stone sand as an alternate material to natural sand. But this recommendation has not been taken seriously he said. Appavu had also submitted that neighbouring states realising the seriousness of depleting ground water owing to sand mining have taken steps to adopt an alternate method by encouraging the use of M-sand instead of river sand. But in Tamil Nadu, despite the Chief Engineer Buildings issuing a circular in 2012 for the use of M-sand and providing subsidy for buying machines used for production of M-sand, nothing concrete has evolved.