Chennai: Tamil Nadu govt has introduced a one-time scheme to regularise excess and illegal quarrying, effective retrospectively from April 6, 2015. This scheme involves levying penalties for quarrying beyond leasehold limits and in non-leasehold areas. Activists, however, are demanding the withdrawal of this order and calling for criminal action against all illegal mining operations, and the closure of quarries found to be in violation of regulations.A govt order specifies that penalties will be calculated using a weighted average rate of seigniorage fee, set at Rs 25 per metric tonne. As part of the new regulations, drone surveys will be mandatory for all existing leases, with completion required within six months. Drone surveys were already completed in 904 out of 1,845 existing rough stone quarries. “The one-time regularisation scheme will be valid for a period of two years from its commencement date,” the order said. This scheme applies to all instances of excess or illegal quarrying for which demand or show cause notices were already issued. A committee led by retired bureaucrat K Allaudin was constituted in 2023 after the industry represented to govt. Based on the committee’s recommendations, govt directed that excess quarrying within leasehold areas shall be regularised by collecting twice the seigniorage fee as a compounding fee, in addition to the one-time seigniorage fee and other statutory levies. For quarrying in non-leasehold areas, five times the seigniorage fee will be collected. Non-payment of penalties will result in the collection of penal interest at 24% per annum. Arappor Iyakkam, an organisation working for transparency and accountability in governance, said in his complaint that the scheme was arbitrary and illegal. “Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulations) Act, 1957 calls for recovery of cost of mineral and allows for criminal action with up to five years imprisonment. Whereas the govt issued the order to legalise all illegal mining by just paying two times the abysmal amount of Rs 25/tonne seigniorage fee as penalty, zero cost of mineral and abdicating its responsibility of criminal action against illegal miners,” said Arappor Iyakkam convenor Jayaram Venkatesan, seeking intervention of chief minister M K Stalin. “The govt order is yet another attempt to further enrich and protect the illegal mining mafia,” he alleged.
