On May 17, a day after all the newspapers in Tamil Nadu and
all over India carried first page full page advertisement and five or six full-page
advertisements in their inside papers, all these dailies – both Tamil and
English dutifully published with very bold headlines Jayalalitha’s statement
that her “government will deal with illegal sand mining with an iron hand” and
that immediately on taking over office, she had directed officials to take
stringent action on the sand mafia. Accusing as crucial that illegal sand
mining was rampant during the previous DMK rule, she had said they were
effectively checked now as a result of which the government’s revenue from sand
mining had increased, according to those faithful reports in these dailies. Of
course, she could not feign ignorance about the incident in Tirupathur on May
12 when a government official (VAO) was attacked by a sand mafia and he was
about to be buried alive and saved because of the timely alert by a rag-picking
girl and mentioned about it in her statement that the search was on for nabbing
the culprits. But locals had said that as those who carried out illegal sand
mining were ADMK men and hence the police had not taken any action.
However not even a single daily, even while publishing the
statement of Jayalalitha, recalled that two days prior to the day of her
assertion, she told a reporter who asked ‘what is the action taken by the
government to prevent increasing loot of sand in the state?’ that ‘she had no
such information’. This callous reply of a ‘responsible’ chief minister was
also published in those very newspapers. Will not the people, who voted her to
power, wonder whether Jayalalitha is fit to be the Chief Minister?
On the very same day of her issuing this statement, by late
evening on May 16, drinking water was supplied as usual for 20 villages within
the limits of 4 panchayats of Devanur, Pudur, Chellapampalayam and Ravanapuram
near Udumalpet in Tirupur district, from the four circle wells in River Palar,
when people noticed the water unusually greenish and stinking. As there was no
rain, water had stagnated like a pond over which for about 50 feet area some
sort of a liquid on green colour had spread. Suspecting it might be poison the
water supply was immediately stopped and the villagers were immediately alerted
by tom-tom not to use the water already supplied, resulting in scare among the
residents. Government officials had rushed to the spot and sent samples of
water from the wells and river to a lab in Tirupur for test which confirmed
that it was pesticide. However the entire water was pumped out and villagers
took care that their cattle did not drink the water. The water samples had been
sent to central lab in Coimbatore for testing.
The villagers are shell shocked over poisoning of the
drinking water which they suspect must be the handiwork of illegal sand
smugglers in Palar. Despite their repeated complaints to authorities no action
was taken to prevent sand smuggling and hence the people of the area closed the
routes to the riverbed with chains. They suspect that the sand looters were
enraged and might have resorted to this heinous act. They had given complaint
to the police to nab the culprits who poisoned drinking water.
Now Jayalalitha had first said she had no information on
illegal sand mining and smuggling and then said she had directed officials to
take stringent action, immediately after assuming power. Is she speaking the
truth? Certainly not!
Every time, the ADMK comes to power a particular man said to
be close to the Poes Garden ‘queen’ is given the licence to loot the river beds
and another person in Tirunelveli – Tuticorin districts, the licence to plunder
the mine-rich sands of coastal areas in southern district. Under the ruling
party’s political patronage the sand mafia do not hesitate to mow down
officials, protestors and attack whistle-blowers.
Recently on March 12,
The sand mafia claimed another life in Tamil Nadu, after a truck laden
with illegally mined sand ran over a youth who organized a protest in
Mittatharkulam, a village in Tirunelveli district. Sathish Kumar, 21, was
trying to stop people from transporting sand from Nambiyaru river, which ran
along his village, when the truck mowed him down. Villagers alleged that the
truck belonged to an ADMK functionary and that the driver was his brother.
Mittatharkulam in southern Tamil Nadu has been fighting
mining of sand from the bed of the Nambiyar, the only source of drinking water
for more than 15 villages, for over a decade. Political parties have been
aiding the mafia, villagers alleged.
In that morning, Sathish, son of Esther Vincent Kumar from
Mittatharkulam, found the sand mafia at work and alerted the villagers. Around
20 of them rushed to the spot and tried to stop the truck. Villagers said
Sathish and his friends stood at one end of the road while the rest of the
villagers blocked the other end. Driver Kingston, a native of Ittamozhi
village, ran over Sathish while trying to flee in the truck. Kingston and the
cleaner fled the spot leaving the truck behind.
Sathish, who sustained serious head injuries, died on the
spot. Villagers staged a demonstration and dispersed only after officials
arrived at the spot and promised action against the culprits. Villagers said
the sand was being illegally ferried to Kerala. Truckers had brought coconut
waste from Kerala to construct a dirt track on the river bed, they claimed.
Villagers said that the prime accused Densingh Gomas is an
ADMK functionary and Kingston, the truck driver, was his brother. They say
Densingh was in the truck when Kingston mowed down Sathish. After the incident,
officials who came to the spot tried to spin a story as if the youth was killed
in a clash, which irked the villagers and led to a protest. 11 persons,
including Densingh and Kingston, had been booked and loadman Arul, from
Ittamozhi, had been arrested. Police are on the lookout for 10 other accused. A
series of PILs on various incidents related to illegal sand mining are pending
before the HC. “The Federation of Sand
Lorry Owners Associations and the Aminjikarai Lorry Owners Associations had
filed several PILs in court,” says Yuvaraj, an office-bearer with both
associations.
The sand mafia is clearly out to prove a point - oppose it
at your own peril. Only the previous week a Village Assistant was abducted at
gun-point for making a complaint against illegal sand mining at Anaiyarkulam
village near Tirunelveli and was severely beaten up before being released.
The gang that attacked Village Assistant Karuppasamy, was
allegedly led by the son of a local ADMK leader. The officer, however survived
the incident as people from his village staged a four-hour long road blockade
demanding the immediate arrest of the ADMK leader’s son and his accomplices.
Four of the gang members were sent to Palayamkottai Central prison. But not
everyone who has opposed the sand mafia has been so lucky.
Government officials had faced similar assaults in the past
years during ADMK regime and this time in July last, when Revenue Inspector
P.Ramu was run over by a tractor smuggling sand at Thuraiyur near Tiruchi. A
Revenue Divisional Officer was killed in Kanyakumari district last year.
Three Revenue Department officials were killed by speeding
trucks. A Tahsildar was rendered handicapped after a sand-laden truck dashed
against him during the previous ADMK regime between 2001-06.
A.R. Venkatesan and G. Punniakoti, Tahsildars; and R.
Shanmugasundaram, Revenue Inspector, were killed in Kancheepuram district. On
December 11, 2008, Venkatesan was on patrol duty near Manapakkam when he
stopped a truck carrying illegally-quarried sand. The driver pushed him out of
the truck and sped. Venkatesan died on the spot. Punniakoti and a team of
officials tried to stop a truck transporting illegally-quarried stones at
Erumaiyar on September 13, 2003. The driver did not stop and ran over the Tahsildar.
He died on the spot of head injuries. R. Shanmugasundaram and his team tried to
prevent illegal sand quarrying in the Palar at Palayaseevaram on April 20,
2003. One of the trucks in the riverbed sped, running over the Revenue
Inspector.
Another illegal sand-quarrying lorry hit S. Natarajan, Tahsildar
of Nanguneri. He suffered multiple fractures in the left leg and arm and can
now move around only in a wheelchair. Natarajan sustained multiple fractures
when he tried to stop a lorry, allegedly engaged for illegal sand mining near
Rajakkalmangalam on the Nambiyaru riverbed, about 35 km from Kanyakumari. Surgeries
were performed on his right and left hands, left thigh, left leg and left
shoulder in a private hospital at Nagercoil. The official received serious
injuries in the hip also, as the lorry knocked him down.
According to Revenue Department sources, around 1.15 a.m.,
Natarajan, the Ervadi Revenue Inspector, Kannan; and the village heads, Kannan
and Muthukrishnan, went to Rajakkalmangalam where a Government sand depot had
been functioning before it was closed down on Madras High Court orders. On
seeing the officials, the illegal sandminers tried to flee the riverbed in two
lorries.
One of the lorries knocked down Natarajan, who took position
on a narrow sand stretch, and fled. The driver of the second lorry parked his
vehicle amidst thorny bushes, about 150 metres away from the scene of incident,
where there was a pool of blood and pieces of the damaged windscreen. The then
Jayalalitha government was forced to cancel sand mining leases and take over
all quarrying.
In July 2011, a Revenue Inspector P Ramu was run over by a
tractor smuggling sand in Thuraiyur near Tiruchirapalli, while trying to stop
it from smuggling the sand. A Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) was killed in
Kancheepuram district last year.
The two incidents seem to have signalled a renewed boldness
of the mafia that had mowed down senior revenue officials in Kancheepuram and
Vellore district in 2003 and 2004, where the Palar River yields good quality
sand. Tirunelveli officials too fight almost loosing battle against the sand
mafia who smuggle sand from small rivers that run through the region and also
the Tamiraparani.
The nexus between the mafia, lorry owners, drivers and lower
level ADMK men continue now with the return of their party to power.
But Jayalalitha first said she had no information on illegal
sand mining but two days later vows that they will be dealt with iron hand. How
can she, when her own administration hand in glove with her minions indulging
in these illegal acts? If people of Tamil Nadu, by their own experience, wonder
whether Jayalalitha is fit to be the Chief Minister of the state, they are
certainly not wrong.”
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