Chennai/Madurai:Chief Minister MK Stalin has shot-off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention in the award of Tungsten Mining rights in areas involving a notified bio-diversity Heritage site and places of archaeological importance in south Tamil Nadu, on Friday.
The CM asserted that the State would not allow the mining in the said sensitive areas in Madurai district.
Opposition extends support for protests
AIADMK patriarch and former CM Edappadi K Palaniswami(EPS), in a statement, said his party would stand with the people of Arittapatti-Nayakkarpatti. He urged the Centre to preserve the first Bio-Diversity heritage site of Tamil Nadu in Arittapatti.
The people of Melur taluk have gone on a one-day shut-down of commercial establishments urging the union government to revoke the permission given to the Vedanta group firm to mine the site ripe with bio-diversity and archaeological monuments.
Minister holds talks with protesters
Minister for Commercial Taxes and Registration, P Moorthy, met the protesters in Melur and explained the steps taken by the government to help preserve the locality. He explained to the protesters that the CM had already written to Modi asking them to scrap the project and revoke the permission granted to the mining firm.
Along with the villagers, farmers associations, traders bodies, advocates and several party cadres were part of the agitation. They demanded that a resolution should be adopted in the Legislative Assembly making a policy decision against the tungsten mining in Tamil Nadu and the government should never allow this mining process to begin. After a long deliberation with the Minister, the protesters announced that they would hold their protest.
Stalin's letter to PM
In his, D.O. Letter to the PM, Stalin requested Modi to cancel the rights awarded, citing the grim situation prevailing in the district, which is about 400 km from the State capital.
Stalin said he had already raised the State's concerns on such auctioning of mining rights of critical and strategic minerals. He added that a letter to this effect has been written to the then Minister for Water Resources and Natural Resources on Oct. 3, 2023. In response, the then Union Minister of Parliamentary affairs, Coal and Mines, dated Nov. 11, 2023 wrote back to Tamil Nadu stating that the request had been rejected. The Union Minister, the CM said, citing that the auction of critical minerals by the Ministry of Mines cannot be withheld and that they were doing it in the "larger interests" of the country.
The CM drew the attention of the PM to the recent notification dated Nov. 7 issued by the Union Ministry of Mines declaring Hindustan Zinc Limited as its preferred bidder of Nayakkarpatti Tungsten block (Critical and Strategic Mineral) under Tranche IV.
'Blow To Bio-Diversity, Archaeological Heritage'
The said Tungsten Block comprises Kavattayampatty, Ettimangalam, A.Vallalapatty, Arittapatty, Kidaripatty and Narasingampatty villages. Among them, Arittapatti is a notified Bio-Diversity Heritage site and is famous for archaeological monuments including cave temples, sculptures, Jain symbols, Tamil Brahmi Scripts and Pancha Pandavar stone beds. Any mining activity will cause irreparable damage to these sites, the CM pointed out.
'Detrimental to villagers'
Stalin pointed out that commercial mining in densely populated villages will definitely affect the people in these villages and that they fear they might lose their livelihood. "This has caused immense anguish to the people, who fear that their livelihood may be lost forever," read the letter.
'Won't allow such mining'
"The Government of Tamil Nadu would never allow any such mining to be undertaken in these areas," Stalin said. He also sought the Prime Minister considering the ground situation. He also urged him to instruct the Ministry of Mines to cancel the award of tungsten mining rights given to Hindustan Zinc Limited in Madurai District. The CM asked the PM "to instruct the Ministry of Mines to desist from floating any bids for mining without the consent of the concerned State Government".
"People do not trust DMK-government'
Palaniswami said the people do not trust the assurances given by the Stalin-led government in this regard. He announced that his party would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the people in their protests against tungsten mining. He added that his party legislators and office bearers would partake in the protests.
EPS urged the union government to revoke the permission accorded to tungsten mining considering the people's sentiments and the need to preserve the State's first bio-diversity site. The former CM also asked the state government to take necessary action on this front.
