HC directs Commissioner to appoint officer to check quarrying

Madras High Court today directed the Commissioner of Geology and Mining Department to immediately appoint a senior officer to inspect the quarrying going on in a part of Manathal Village at Omalur Taluk in Salem District and submit a report.
The First Bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, before which a PIL filed by A. Ammasi of Omalur Taluk came up, impleaded the Commissioner of Geology and Mining Department as the respondent.
The petitioner, who is an agriculturalist, challenged the validity of a July 31 order passed by the Salem Collector permitting one P.Karthik of Sankagiri Taluk in the district to quarry 42500 cubic meter(7083 lorry loads) of gravel earth from the village lake in Manathal in 4.25 hectares , allegedly in violation of certain provisions of Tamil Nadu Minor Mineral concession rules 1959.

The petitioner submitted that some 350 families solely depended upon the lake.
The petitioner alleged that the collector had passed the order based on "incorrect" reports submitted by the Tahsildar and the PWD Executive Engineer.
He submitted that the report of Tahsildar that there was no water in the lake is not true. He claimed that quarrying was done at ten metres depth, more than the stipulated one metre.
Claiming that ground water level will be affected and wells will go dry, he prayed for an urgent direction to revoke the permission granted for quarrying.
The bench ordered an inspection by a senior officer of Geology and Mining Department and also issued notice to government pleader STS Moorthy on behalf of different authorities and posted the PIL for further hearing to October 1.