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Panel begins inspection of sand quarries in Karur district
Acting on the orders of the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court, the special committee for assessing illegal sand quarrying in Cauvery riverbeds began its inspection at a sand quarry in Mayanur village of Karur district on Friday.
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Thiruchirapalli
According to Mukkilan, organiser, Tamil Nadu Environment Protection Organisation and Cauvery River Protection Organisation (CRPM), “The president of Cauvery Neervala Pathukappu Sangam had filed a petition in the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on August 24 about excessive river sand mining in Cauvery and Kollidam riverbeds.
Following which the High Court formed the committee of three, including two advocates and a plant science professor at Manomaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli to assess the existing sand quarrying in all the quarries at Karur and Tiruchy and to submit the report by September 12.”
He added that the committee had visited Karur, Mayanur and Sindhalavadi sand quarries for inspecting the prevailing sand quarrying levels.
Further, the CRPM organiser stated that the government has only allowed quarrying 1 metres (3.3 feet) in the riverbed but the prevailing sand quarries have already gone deeper than 6 feet.
Due to the excessive sand mining, the river Cauvery is filled with massive trenches and pits which are highly disturbing the river flow. And also the massive mining has severely affected the groundwater table. This has affected the villages badly and they have fallen prey to an intense drought.
He added that the three-member committee had inspected the quarries in Karur on Friday and found out excessive quarrying in Mayanur but the PWD department of Karur had claimed that those are tipper lorries tracks and not sand mined pits. The three-member committee had consulted with the public about the prevailing sand mining and had also taken measurements.
Following that, the committee is expected to inspect sand mines situated in Cauvery and Kollidam riverbeds in Tiruchy in the forthcoming days.
Farmers’ association sets Sept 15 as deadline for insurance claims
The Tamilaga Cauvery Vivasayigal Sangam will launch a road block protest if the farmers are not given the insurance claims by September 15, said PR Pandian, General Secretary of the association, here on Friday.
Disclosing it after the association meeting of the office bearers of the Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagappattinam districts, Pandian, said the crop insurance claims for the year 2016-17 were not disbursed to many farmers. Though the Union and state Governments have paid the insurance premium, the insurance companies did not pay the claims.
The insurance companies should pay the claims to all the farmers before September 15 and the list of the beneficiary farmers should also be released. If this was not done, farmers would resort to a road blockade. Meanwhile, Pandian appealed to Jaggi Vasudev, who has organised a rally to retrieve rivers, to demand the nationalisation of the rivers. T Punniyamurthy, state President, T P K Rajendran, the Zonal President and others participated.
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