Former congress Kerala unit (KPCC) president V M Sudheeran, who has always taken up cudgels for environmental causes, has shot off a letter to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan exhorting him to roll back the state government decision to lift the ban on quarrying and mining activities in the state.
In the letter, which he shared on his facebook page on Thursday, Sudheeran terms as anti-people the government decision to remove the ban on mining and quarrying activities implemented in the backdrop of the massive downpour and landslides that claimed several lives.
The LDF government had imposed a blanket but temporary ban on all quarrying and mining activities in the 895 quarries in the state last week. The director of the department of geology and mining lifted the ban the other day through a circular.
A press release said that the ban was being lifted as the intensity of the rainfall and soil dampness was reducing and the state disaster management authority had revoked all alerts.
Even as Sudheeran exhorted the chief minister to roll back the decision to lift the ban, he accused the state government of having bowed down to the pressure exerted by the quarry lobby.
The state government has through its decision categorically proved that it is giving precedence to the interests of the quarry owners over that of the public at large, the congress stalwart charges.
Although there are only 750 quarries in the state as per official records, close to 6,000 quarries are functioning illegally. Instead of taking action against such illegal quarries, the state government is paving the way for them to function smoothly, the letter says.
“I kindly implore the state government to put an end to its duplicity of championing environmental causes in the face of natural disasters only to take steps causing harm to the nature and the public even before the public at large recovers from such calamities,” writes Sudheeran.