The Tamil Nadu government has informed the Madras High Court that it has decided to recover losses to the tune of ₹5,832.44 crore from private beach sand mineral exporters, seize all the stocks available with them and constitute a Special Investigation Team to probe illegal mining since 2000-01.
In a counter-affidavit filed before Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, who were seized of a suo motu PIL taken up in 2015, Industries Secretary S. Krishnan sought the court’s nod to seize 1.55 crore tonnes of stocks and hand them over to Indian Rare Earths Limited, a central PSU.
Firmly backing the three reports filed by amicus curiae V. Suresh, who had estimated the quantum of illegal mining and the loss to the public exchequer based on Central and State government reports, the Secretary said the government had accepted his findings, and the Collectors of Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari would be directed to recover the losses.
Further, the Collectors would be directed to lodge complaints against the miners before the special courts concerned, for violation of the provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act of 1957, the Secretary said.
The counter-affidavit pointed out that the government had originally issued 64 beach sand mining licences (52 in Tirunelveli and six each in Thoothukudi and Kanniyakumari districts) to seven miners. However, following complaints of large-scale illegal mining, the government banned the mining as well as the transportation of beach sand minerals in 2013.
A special team, led by IAS officer Gangandeep Singh Bedi, was constituted to probe the allegations. The team filed reports in 2016 and 2017, stating that 1.01 crore tonnes of raw sand (90.29 lakh from Tirunelveli, 10.29 lakh from Thoothukudi and 54,446 from Kanniyakumari) had been mined illegally from 234.55 hectares in the three districts.
Subsequently, in April 2017, the High Court constituted another team, headed by IAS officer Satyabrata Sahoo, to assess the stocks available with the private miners. The team filed a report in April 2018, stating that 1.55 crore (1.37 crore in Tirunelveli, 12.09 lakh in Thoothukudi and 5.93 lakh in Kanniyakumari) tonnes were available in the three districts.
The Sahoo committee also found a massive difference of 69.89 lakh tonnes between the stocks that had been declared by the miners and the stocks that were available. Further, the amicus curiae, after a detailed assessment of various reports, found that the miners had caused a loss of ₹3,829.76 crore during the pre-ban period (between 2000 and 2013).
The amicus curiae had also assessed a loss of ₹2,002.67 crore during the post-ban period (2013 to 2016), since the miners were reportedly exporting the minerals to foreign countries despite the ban on mining and transportation of the minerals in the State.
Accepting the assessment, the Industries Secretary said the data received from the Commissioner of Customs in Thoothukudi had revealed that 16.74 lakh tonnes of beach sand minerals had been exported between 2013-14 and 2016-17. However, the customs officials were unable to confirm whether the minerals were legally mined or not.
Only in November 2016, the Commissioner of Customs in Thoothukudi began insisting on verifying the source of the beach sand minerals to be exported. In December 2016, the Tirunelveli Collector wrote to customs officials in Kochi, Visakhapatnam and New Mangalore, asking them not to allow illegal miners from Tamil Nadu to export.
As a result, an attempt by V.V. Minerals to export 3,107 tonnes of beach sand minerals from Cochin port was thwarted. Incidents of theft of beach sand from the sealed premises of the private miners were reported in July and August last year. Hence, the Collectors installed CCTV cameras, but miscreants tried to disconnect power supply to those cameras.
The Secretary said that 103 CCTV cameras had been installed to keep a watch on the sealed premises in Thoothukudi district alone, and that three FIRs had been registered in the district in January over the disconnecting of power supply to those cameras. Hence, the minerals were being re-assessed, and the work would get completed in two weeks, the counter-affidavit added.
