Revenue dept slaps Rs 8.5 crore fine on quarry owner for illegal quarrying

A whopping fine of Rs 8.50 crore has been slapped on a quarry owner by the Revenue Department for alleged illegal quarrying of soil and gravel in the Erode district of Tamil Nadu during 2011-16.

Erode Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) Narmadha Devi on Tuesday levied the fine on S Prakash of Perodu village for carrying out quarrying without licence, Tahsildar Veenerselvam said on Wednesday.

This was the highest fine imposed on a quarry owner by the Revenue Department so far in the district, officials said.

The Tahsildar said Prakash had been granted the licence for quarrying soil and gravel from his 0.5 acre land in the village for five years from August, 2011.

When the officials inspected the site for renewing the licence, they found he had extended the quarrying to adjacent lands also.

The matter was taken to the attention of District Collector S Prabhakar who ordered the Mines Department officials to inspect the site and provide a report about the quantity of soil/gravel collected illegally.

Based on the report, which found that Prakash had dug to a depth of 36 meter depth in the adjacent land and collected 6,167 units of soil (1,85,020 cubic feet) valued at several crores of rupees.

Taking into the account the report, the RDO imposed Rs 8.50 crore fine on the quarry owner.