TN Sand Lorry Owners' Assn alleges inaction on complaints of illegal mining

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu State Sand Lorry Owners’ Federation on Monday threatened to take a procession to meet the Governor if no action was taken on their complaints of smuggling of minerals to Karnataka via Hosur.

“Every day, around 80,000 tonnes to 1 lakh tonnes of resources including gravel, m-sand and wet-mix are being smuggled to Karnataka via Hosur. However, the government is reluctant to take action. We have been raising the issue since 2020 but no action has been taken on it,” S Yuvaraj, president of the association told the reporters here.

He pointed out that most of the quarries that are functioning in Krishnagiri district are owned by persons from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. “This has caused a huge loss to the State government exchequer. If the government refuses to take action, mountains in Tamil Nadu - Karnataka border will be gone in a few years,” he said.

He noted that 38 stone crushers in the Krishnagiri produce 5000 to 6000 tons of m-sand every day. “When the neighbour Karnataka refuses to release water, how do the state officials including police, revenue, commercial tax, mining and RTO checkpost allow illegal transportation of minerals in 4000 lorries daily?” he asked.

Yuvaraj alleged that non-computerisation of the issuance of the transit pass has led to large-scale corruption. “The transit pass was issued in manual receipt in the government-approved stone quarries. The 500 transit passes issued daily were used to smuggle in 4000 lorries to Karnataka via Hosur,” he alleged.

“We have written to the Chief Minister seeking his intervention to stop the illegal mining and smuggling of natural resources. We demand the government to set up Lokayukta in at least 10 districts to take action against the officials to fail to act on the complaints of illegal mining. If no action was taken, we will take out a procession to meet the Governor in February on this issue,” he said.