TN should oppose setting up of NLC's third mine on protected zone: Anbumani

CHENNAI: PMK president and Rajya Sabha member Dr Anbumani Ramadoss on Tuesday said that the state government's support for the NLC proposed third mine in Cuddalore district shows the chief minister's stepmotherly treatment as he opposed the coal mines auction in Thanjavur district.

In a statement, Anbumani said that the Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Minies Pralhad Joshi has replied to his query in the Rajya Sabha stating that NLCIL has a mining lease from the state government for an area of 64,750 acres till 2036.

In the reply, Joshi said that the NLCIL obtained its mining lease on August 29, 1963, and the lease is periodically renewed. "At present, the lease is renewed up to December 5, 2036.

Mine III project is part of the lease. No application for permission to open Mine III of M/s NLCIL has been received by Coal Controller, " to another query on whether the state government sought to withdraw permission to start mining operations by NLC at Mine III, the minister said that no such request was received from the state government.

Dr Anbumani said that when the NLC was started there was a need for the electricity generated from there. "At a time when the state has become a power surplus, the NLC's mining lease should not have been renewed or given anew, " he said. He added that the public sector company has already mined 37,256 acres and it has planned to set up Mine III spreading over 12,125 acres.

He said that 26 villages land would be taken over for the NLC's third mine and of them, nine villages fall within the Cauvery Protected Agricultural Zone. The state government not opposing the third mine is a betrayal of Cauvery farmers, he said, adding that the chief minister who opposed the setting up of mines in Thanjavur district is not opposing the third mine in Cuddalore.