Surprise checks by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) eastern range on Saturday unearthed large-scale unauthorised mining of granite from government-owned land at the Pappan Para and Subban Para areas in Chathurangapara village in Idukki.
According to sources, three persons illegally encroached upon the government land and mined large quantities of rocks.
According to officials, following verification by the Idukki District Geologist earlier, the Revenue department had seized vehicles used for mining and imposed a fine of ₹12 lakh for illegal mining, which the encroachers didn’t pay. However, the encroachers paid the fine amount for the vehicles and got them released. The geologist had fixed the quantity mined at 16,000 tonnes.
40,000 tonnes
On Saturday, the inspection by the VACB officials with the assistance of Kottayam Assistant Geologist revealed large-scale mining from the land. “In the pretext of the Udumbanchola-Mundiyeruma State Highway construction, the encroachers illegally entered the revenue land in Chathurangappara and quarried granite. They transported the rocks to a crusher unit at Thankappanpara in Santhanpara grama panchayat and converted them into by-products and used them for construction. The licence of the crusher unit ended in March 2020,” said a VACB source. “Preliminary inspections revealed that 40,000 tonnes of granite was illegally mined from the land, costing over ₹1 crore,” said the VACB source.
“A report will be submitted to the higher officials. Field-level inspection and action will continue,” said the source.
Chathurangappara village officer T. Rajesh said that due to the road construction, the entrance to the land was blocked for a period and the illegal mining occurred during that period.
“A report submitted to the District Collector recommends fixing proper fencing in the area to prevent illegal entry to the land. The report also recommended detailed inspections,” said Idukki District Geologist Sunil Kumar.
Earlier, a contractor had allegedly quarried huge quantities of granite from the Gap Road stretch of the Kochi-Dhanushkodi national highway under the pretext of road construction.
