Villagers urge Tirunelveli Collector to cancel permit given for stone

Seeking the cancellation of permission granted for stone quarrying near their village, the residents of Gandheeswaram Pudhur near Maanur in the district submitted a petition to Collector R. Sukumar on Monday.

The petitioner villagers said permission had been granted for stone quarrying near Gandheeswaram Pudhur under Chezhiyanallur village panchayat with 350 families despite the opposition from the villagers in the public hearing conducted by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board on November 25 last. Notwithstanding the villagers’ resistance, preliminary works on setting-up stone quarry near Gandheeswaram Pudhur had been started.

Since stone quarrying would seriously affect farming and sheep rearing, the chief profession of the Gandheeswaram Pudhur villagers, the Collector should cancel the permit given for stone quarrying.

“The farmers of Gandheeswaram Pudhur are totally relying upon two 100-year-old open wells and a rain-fed pond for raising the crops including paddy, banana and vegetables. If quarrying is allowed, the deep pits to be dug for mining stones will alarmingly deplete the groundwater table and hence farming will be wiped-out instantly. Moreover, the quarry dust billowing from the mines would settle on the vegetation to destroy the fodder for our cattle. So, the entire village have to migrate to some other place in search of work. Hence, the Collector should cancel the permit given for stone quarrying near Gandheeswaram Pudhur,” said the villagers.

On behalf of Then Thamizhar Katchi, a petition seeking immediate commencement of construction of the ‘Y’-shaped rail overbridge at Kulavanigarpuram manned level crossing. As this manned level crossing on busy Thiruvananthapuram High Road is closed 14 times a day to facilitate the safe crossing of trains connecting Tirunelveli and Tiruchendur, traffic snarl and consequent chaos have become integral part of one of the busiest roads of Tirunelveli city.

“Even after this rail overbridge was sanctioned by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin himself a year ago, there is no sign of starting the construction of this structure. Consequently, vehicles have to wait in long queue for nearly a kilometre on both sides whenever this manned level crossing is closed. Hence, the government should release funds for immediately starting the the rail overbridge construction,” said E. Pandi, Tirunelveli district secretary of Then Thamizhar Katchi.

Farmer and Tirunelveli district secretary of Tamil Nadu All Farmers’ Associations Coordination Committee D. Abraham submitted a petition seeking compensation for the black gram crop damaged in recent rains near Maanur in the district.

The petitioner said the farmers of Kaanaarpatti, Irandumsollaan and Ilanthaikulam, who had raised black gram as rain-fed crop, had suffered crop loss after the recent downpour.

“As the downpour had destroyed the crop even before it was ready for harvest, the farmers had to plough through these fields for cultivating paddy afresh. Since the farmers have suffered huge loss as they could not harvest black gram, the government should give compensate this loss,” Mr. Abraham said.