‘Introduce e-way billing in mining dept to arrest revenue loss’

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu State Sand Lorry Owner's Federation has urged the Chief Minister to take steps to introduce an “e-way bill” to prevent illegal stone quarrying and m-sand crushers.

“We have been urging the government to introduce an E-way bill system to do away with the irregularities happening in the mining department for the last year and loss of revenue caused by it. Despite our continuous demand for the e-way billing system, the government is refusing to introduce the same, ” the Federation president S Yuvaraj said.

He alleged that manual receipts were being misused to carry multiple illegal loads in all the hills and stone quarries. “The stone quarries in Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Villupuram and Tiruvannamalai which were operating for more than five years should be immediately stopped and an audit should be conducted to unearth the irregularities,” he said, adding that the amendment to ensure the functioning of the quarries and crushers with a quality certificate from the public works department has not been introduced yet.

Yuvaraj said that the government has been incurring losses running up to several crores by issuing a few transit passes and GST bills. “Action should be initiated against the officials, including mining department, police and transport for the irregularities. All the quarries in the five districts should be audited to unearth irregularities and cases should be filed against its owners and their licences should be cancelled, ” he demanded.