Kerala is exploring the possibility of approaching the Supreme Court against the Centre’s decision to amend the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulations) Act of 1957, Industries Minister P. Rajeeve said here on Thursday. The State is in the process of getting a legal opinion on the same, he said.
Kerala had informed the Centre about its objection to the proposed amendment as early as a year ago and a memorandum had been submitted to Union Minister for Mining Pralhad Joshi in this regard.
Mr. Rajeeve said that Kerala was opposing the proposed amendment as it made way for the Centre to usurp the rights of the State government to mine beach sand minerals from the State’s coastline and at the same time, allowed private entrepreneurs to mine sand from the beaches.
The new amendment leads to breach of the State’s sovereignty. According to the existing law, only government-owned public sector companies may be allowed to mine beach sand, he said. Through the proposed amendment, this policy of restricting mining rights to public sector units alone can be upset and the entry of private sector in the mining of atomic minerals might be made possible, Mr. Rajeeve said.
Allowing the private sector entry into sand mining in the fragile, overpopulated and environmentally sensitive coastline of the State would be a challenge to people’s lives and livelihood, he added.
