Out of an ‘alarming’ penalty of ₹321 crore levied on illegal quarry owners in Krishnagiri district, only ₹20 lakh has been collected, so far, and the fine has been allowed to be paid in installments, noted the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The tribunal on May 8 noted with ‘surprise’ that the quarry owners have also been granted permits to remove the illegally quarried minerals even before they could deposit the entire penalty amount.
In a case filed before the NGT in 2021 against quarrying of granite, gravel and rough stone without necessary clearances, officials from the departments of Revenue, Geology and Mining, and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) found that a quarry owner in Kallakurukki village had encroached an adjacent non-lease area and misused transport permits obtained for quarrying.
The tribunal also took cognisance of a report published in The Hindu dated November 11, 2022 that highlighted over-extraction and illegal operations by many quarries even after the expiry of the Environmental Clearance (EC) and without the ‘Consent to Operate’.
“There are three appeal petitions which are disposed of by the District Collector and five appeal petitions to be disposed of by the Commissioner, Department of Geology and Mining. For those cases in which no appeals have been preferred, the action is yet to be initiated for collecting penalty,” the NGT noted, adding that the appeals must be disposed of in two months.
The tribunal has asked the district and revenue department authorities to give reasons for allowing the penalty to be paid in instalments and adjourned the matter to July 17.
