What is the alleged sand mining loot in Tamil Nadu all about? It all began in September this year, when multiple teams of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) fanned out to over 25 locations, looking for excess sand mining in the mining sites directly controlled by the Water Resources Department.
This department is headed by veteran DMK leader S. Duraimurugan, who is also the party’s General Secretary. Initially, it appeared the ED might not succeed in its mission of uncovering everything and at best it could record some illegal mining but may not be able to gather evidence.
However, a big turning point came in October, when the Water Resources department engineer-in-chief A. Muthaiya, wrote to executives engineers in his department, asking them to disclose every inch of illegal sand mining in their respective jurisdictions. Muthaiya not only acknowledged that sand was being looted illegally in the mines, but also said it was time to clean up the internal dirt. This was big evidence for the ED.
