Sand mining: Collector summoned

The contempt petition was filed by Ganesan, state junior wing president of the Akhila Bharatha Hindu Bhakthasabai, who stated that the authorities failed to keep a check on illegal sand mining on the Tambirabarani river bed and not removing encroachments along the riverbanks despite the court order.

Since the officials failed to initiate action, the petitioner moved the court. “Even after the court ordered the PWD officials to remove such encroachments on August last year and directed the collectors of Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts to extend their cooperation for the task, the order was not implemented,” Ganesan said.

“As the officials failed to implement the order, the bench should treat it as contempt of court and initiate appropriate action against Tirunelveli Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish, Thoothukudi Collector Sandeep Nanduri and PWD Secretary, Saravanakumar,” he contended.

The case came up for hearing before a Division Bench comprising Justices K K Sasidharan and G R Swaminathan on Tuesday. After hearing the arguments, the bench sought an explanation from the Tirunelveli Collector, Commissioner of Tirunelveli Corporation, Palayamkottai tahsildar and other officials concerned in this regard.

The district collector and the commissioner have been asked to appear before the court on December 6.