Amid allegations that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan intervened to facilitate mineral sand mining at Thottappally in Alappuzha to aid the interests of Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL), the indefinite relay satyagraha being staged under the aegis of the Karimanal Ghanana Virudha Ekopana Samithi (KGVES) against the sand removal will complete 1,000 days on Tuesday.
The protest against the “indiscriminate mineral sand-mining” began on June 10, 2021, two years after the government issued an order to remove sand from Thottappally pozhi (sandbar at sea mouth) in May 2019 in the name of disaster management (flood mitigation in Kuttanad). The government, a few months later, reached an agreement with the Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited (KMML), allowing the public sector undertaking to extract over two lakh cubic metre of sand at the rate of ₹464.55 per cubic metre. The agreement was renewed every year and the KGVES alleged that the KMML had transported 54 lakh tonne of mineral sand from Thottappally pozhi in the last four years.
Temporary halt
Like in previous years, sand-mining at Thottappally came to a temporary halt two months ago following the end of the contract. The government, however, is expected to renew the agreement for sand extraction ahead of the monsoon season.
It has been alleged that the KMML diverted the sand containing atomic minerals to CMRL at a throwaway price and that the private firm had paid money to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s daughter T. Veena as remuneration for the government’s support for mining activities at Thottappally.
‘Houses destroyed’
The KGVES alleged that ‘single pond mining’ at pozhi had resulted in the destruction of 476 houses of fisher families in the region.
On Tuesday, a protest meeting will be held at Thottappally. It will be inaugurated by Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran at 3 p.m. K.K. Rema, Mathew Kuzhalnadan, MLAs; and former MP K.S. Manoj will attend.
