People's Democracy

TAMILNADU

Bigwigs Involved in Rs 35, 000 Cr Granite Scam

S P Rajendran

A HUGE scam in granite quarrying, worth Rs 35,000 crore plus, has been unearthed in Tamilnadu and there were many shocking revelations over a week subsequently.

The scam came to light after a complaint was lodged, alleging that three firms in Madurai district, having powerful political backing, have caused an enormous loss to the state exchequer.

The three firms named for the “loot of granite” in the mineral rich Melur taluk near Madurai are --- Olympus Granites, with which Durai Dayanidhi, son of  union chemicals and fertilisers minister M K Alagiri, is associated; PRP Exports of the pro-AIADMK mining baron P R Palanichamy who also enjoys the support of other parties; and Sindhu Exports.

After conducting a probe into the allegation that granite worth several thousand crores of rupees was being illegally mined from Melur taluk, much beyond their entitlement, the then collector of Madurai district, Mr U Sagayam, examined the facts and prepared a report addressed to the industries secretary on May 19. The report named the Olympus Granites, PRP Exports and Sindu Granties as some of the firms that were found extracting much beyond what was permitted under the license they had procured.

Four days later, Mr Sagayam was transferred out of Madurai.

SHOCKING

REVELATION

It has come to public knowledge that Olympus Granites is partly owned by Durai Dayanidhi, in partnership with one S Nagaraj. PRP Exports, run by P R Palanichamy, claims to be the largest granite processing unit in the country.

According to Mr Sagayam, there were 91 quarries in operation in the area, besides the three which the district authorities investigated. The latter had recommended a detailed assessment of their operations.

After top revenue officials carried out field inspections and an audit of the granite blocks, Mr Sagayam made a personal visit to confirm the findings. The discovery was shocking. A staggering Rs 15,721 crore per year was the estimated revenue loss on account of the illegal quarrying of 39,30,431 cubic feet of granite.

Together with the loss of Rs 617 crore by way of the licence fee, it comes to Rs 16,338 crore per year.

While the quarry owners are on contract with the Tamilnadu Minerals Ltd (TAMIN), they have several private quarries spread over vast tracts of land.

These companies, criticised by Mr Sagayam in his 13-page report, not only mined more than what was permissible under the contract but also encroached upon the government’s fallow lands, panchami land (assigned to dalits during the colonial period), water bodies and common roads.

The investigation revealed that these firms have quarried granite blocks beyond the permitted limits and also in areas for which they do not have a licence. In the process, many water resources have disappeared and people in several villages have migrated out en masse in search of livelihood. Worse, some rare heritage sites have been gobbled up.

Mr Sagayam suggested in his report that the government agency, the Tamilnadu Minerals Ltd, should itself do the mining which would ensure that there was no illegal activity; apart from that, it would earn thousands of crores as revenue.

Soon after he forwarded his report, however, he was transferred out on May 23, as the managing director of Tamilnadu Handloom Weavers’ Cooperative Society.

CPI(M) DEMANDS

A CBI ENQUIRY

Despite the startling revelations, substantiated with documentary proofs, satellite pictures, CDs and photographs, the Jayalalithaa government sat tight upon the report for more than two months.

However, an RTI activist released the copies of the report to the media in Chennai on August 1. This shocked the people of the state to the core. The Tamilnadu state committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) condemned the inaction of the AIADMK government and demanded a CBI enquiry into this mega scam. Going through the report of Mr Sagayam, CPI(M) state secretary G Ramakrishnan said that it might be a loss of Rs 35,000 crore plus to the state exchequer per year. He said that it must be treated as a mega scam and not as something like a small theft.

After the report was out in the open, Madurai collector Mr Anshul Mishra formed 18 teams comprising officials from the Revenue Department, engineers and surveyors, to survey as many as 175 granite quarries in the district. The teams have been inspecting the granite quarries since August 2.

On August 3, the collector himself inspected some of the quarries where he found that the granite firms had encroached upon a large extent of government land without any authorisation. These firms had clearly tried to destroy all evidence of illegal quarrying of granite stones by dumping debris and mud into the quarried pits.

One of the teams had to remove three huge sheds from a hurriedly filled up a huge irrigation tank. These sheds must have been put up for granite workers earlier.

ALAGIRI'S SON,

9 OTHERS BOOKED

In the continuing crackdown for the past six days in regard to illegal granite quarrying, cases have been registered against ten persons, including Durai Dayanidhi, son of the union minister M K Alagiri's. The reports have charged the companies owned by them with mining sand and granite without permission and some other offences under the Indian Penal Code damage to public property and erasing evidence, officials said.

Besides Durai Dayanidhi, cases have been filed against his partner Nagaraj, P R Palanichamy (owner of PRP Exports), and others on complaints from village administrative officers of E Malampatti, Vellaloor and Keelavalavu panchayats, the officials said.

It is notable that they have also been accused of quarrying vast amounts of sand illegally, besides granite, and destroying lakes and ponds. Officials said some hillocks had totally “disappeared” due to illegal quarrying.

Meanwhile, four persons, including Palanichamy, have moved the Madras High Court bench at Madurai, seeking anticipatory bail.