With ADMK in power, sand mafia rules the roost

With the ever growing real estate and construction industries, the demand for sand and sand mining is worth several thousand crores of rupees leading to vested interests attempting to make quick money by flouting all guidelines and corrupting officials and ruling partymen. Unless the political leadership of a regime is conscious of the damage that will be wrought on environments and ecology by excessive sand mining in river beds and check and stamp out greedy contractors the sand mafia will go strong and rule the roost.

Every time, the ADMK comes to power a particular men by name Arumugasamy said to be close to the Poes Garden ‘queen’ is given the licence to loot the river beds and another person in Tirunelveli – Tuticorin district, 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 whistleblowers.

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 Nambiyar 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 prime accused Densingh Gomas is an AIADMK 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 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 PILsin 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 last 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 MDMK leader’s son and his accomplices. Four of the gang members are now in the Palayamkotai Central prison But not everyone who has opposed the sand mafia has been so lucky.

In November 2004, the then Nanguneri tahsildar, Natarajan (50) was knocked down while trying to stop a lorry carrying illegally mined sand from the river Nambiyaru.

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 Thurayur near Tiruchi. A Revenue Divisional Officer was killed in Kanyakumari district last year.

Three Revenue Department officials were killed by speeding trucks and to a tahsildar, who 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 last, 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 here, in the early hours today.

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. His condition is said to be "stable."

According to revenue department sources, around 1.15 a.m., Mr. 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.

When the revenue inspector and others, who were standing on a gravel road leading to the Tirunelveli-Nagercoil Highway tried to take Mr. Natarajan in a jeep, it got stuck in the sand. Ambulances from the Accident Victims Relief Centres at Valliyoor, Thalapathisamudhram and Nanguneri reached the spot within half hour of a cellphone message.

Last July a revenue inspector P Ramu was run over by a tractor smuggling sand in Thurayur 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 Tamaraiparani.

The killing of a deputy tahsildar R Venkatesan in Kancheepuram in December 2004 had shocked the state. He and the then tahsildar Manoharan had intercepted a lorry laden with illegally quarried sand. Venkatesan, who tried to jump into the driver's cabin of the lorry fell and crushed by the lorry. Prior to this a tahsildar was killed in 2002 and in April 2003 a revenue inspector was killed. There was even an attempt in 2004 to kill another tahsildar.  The then Jayalalitha government was forced to cancel sand mining leases and take over all quarrying.

The nexus between the mafia, lorry owners, drivers and lower level ADMK men continue now with the return of their party to power.