FINAL-PUCL-Press Meet-Sand Mining in River Beds-9thOct2013

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PEOPLE'S UNION FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES (PUCL)-

CHENNAI & SURROUNDING DISTRICTS Hussaina Manzil, III Floor, 255 (old No. 123) Angappa Naicken Street, Chennai-600 001.

Phone: 91-44-25352459

Prof. S. Sankaralingam TSS ManiPresident Secretary9443381160 9444905151

Date: 09/10/ 2013

Release of inter im report of Fact F inding Team (FFT) on

River Sand Mining in the Palar and Cheyyar Basins

in Kanchipuram Distri ct, Tamil Nadu

Constitution of the Fact-finding Mission

On the basis of complaints received of illegal sand mining in the Palar and Cheyyar

basins in Kanchipuram District, the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)-Chennai and

Surrounding districts set up a fact-finding team (FFT) with the following members to

investigate the same:

1. Prof. G. Saraswathi, President, PUCL-TN & Puducherry

2. Prof. S. Sankaralingam, President, PUCL - Chennai & Surrounding Districts

3. Saravanan K, Treasurer, PUCL - Tamil Nadu & Pudhucherry

4. K. Sudhir, Peoples Architecture Commonweal

5. D. Leela, Peoples Architecture Commonweal

6. K. Ragul, Student, School of Architecture and Planning, Anna University

7. G. V. Kumaresan, Engineer

8. Kanchi Kailasam, Student of Law interning at PUCL and 5 other student

volunteers

Terms of Reference

The team decided to look into legal frame work related to river sand mining in Tamil

Nadu, mining procedures followed at quarries, the role of government at various levels,

social, environmental and economic impacts of river sand mining including aspects of health

and impact on traditional governance of commons. The ToR was broadly divided into mining

related, executive role related and impact related sections (The detailed ToR will be included

in final report).

Schedule and Process followed by the FFT to Collate Facts

On 24th & 25th Aug.2013, the FFT visited sand mining sites/quarries and stock yards

in Palar and Cheyyar river basins and interacted with people of the area, took photographs

and videos of the sand mining activity, spent quarries and stockyards and interviews of

people.

On 30th Aug. and 2nd Sep.2013, the team interviewed various District officials

including the District Collector.

Apart from these visits and interactions, the FFT has been collating facts for the past

several weeks, from various replies to questions under RTI, Tamil Nadu Minor Minerals



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Concession Rules (TNMMCR) 1959 (amended upto 2005), rulings of higher courts, relevant

G.Os, mining permits given for quarries etc.

It is to be noted that the visits were made after the ruling of National Green Tribunal

of 05-08-2013 which ordered a halt to all illegal sand mining across India.

Quarries & Stockyards Surveyed

Palar BasinOn 24th Aug.2013, the FFT visited Pazhayaseevaram, Pinayur, Pazhaveri quarries and

the spent quarries at Puliyambakkam and Angambakkam on Palar. It also visited the

stockyards at Pazhaveri and Sankarapuram where quarried sand of Palar was stocked.

Cheyyar Basin

On 25thAug.2013, the FFT surveyed the largely spent (i.e.totally depleted) quarries at

Magaral, Kavanthandalam, Elayanar Velur, Sitthathur, Vayalakkavur and Pullambakkam on

the Cheyyar and Kavanthandalam stockyard where quarried sand of Cheyyar was stocked.

The quarries and stockyards visited both in Palar and Cheyyar basins were spread

across Kanchipuram and Uthiramerur Taluks of Kanchipuram District.

What we Saw, Heard and Recorded on the Ground

During the visit to the sand mining sites at Pazhayaseevaram, Pazhaveri and Pinayur,

the FFT members saw thousands of men and women with shovels, working at a frenzied pace

to fill as many lorry loads as possible between sunrise and sunset. The sand was loaded into

hundreds of tractor-trailers scurrying to and fro on the river beds transporting the river sand

to the stock yard at Pazhaveri. On enquiry, the FFT learnt that the labourers were mostly

migrant workers from distant districts such as Dharmapuri and Cuddalore. In all the three

riverbed sites, almost uniformly, the labourers were digging, shovelling and loading sand at

depths of 25-30 feet (7.6-9.2 meters) below the river bed, in a landscape that resembled moreand more the vast, cratered and life-less surface of the moon.

We saw the remains of centuries old flood and spring channels along the south bank

of the Palar in Pinayur, gouged out and laid waste. The channels looked like small ponds

having some water as sand was mined from this part of the bank itself. We saw the forlorn

river intake wells of the TWAD Board’s water supply scheme in Pazhayaseevaram which

serves as a water source to the southern suburbs of Chennai city, marooned on miniscule

islands as sand is being mined around the intake wells in the midst of the river bed – the

largest only a hundred square meters in area.

In Puliyambakkam, we saw the remnants of a social forestry project. Local peopletold us that the trees were felled and sand was mined in the site. We visited the stockyards at

Pazhaveri, Pazhayaseevaram and Kavanthandalam, with their man-made mountains of sand

where monster trucks continued to be loaded with the mineral around the clock using

mechanised means. The heavy duty trucks tirelessly ply the roads to Chennai city, affecting

the roads. Many instances of workers, villagers and other road users falling victim to the

proliferation and movement of these heavy vehicles, tractors and earth movers, were cited.

We met several individuals and small and large groups of people from the villages on

the banks of the Palar and Cheyyar, many who had worked in the quarries themselves and

many who confessed to having received money for not opposing illegal sand mining.



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In face the FFT heard from a number of local residents that the sand mining

companies regularly paid monthly amounts ranging up to Rs.1,000/- to each household in the

village as a means of copting them and purchasing their silence

During the 2 days of the field visits, the FFT did not come across any official meant to

monitor the sand mining activities eventhough all of the mining and sale activity is intended

to be conducted by and under the supervision of the Government.

Very importantly, the FFT did not see any signs of quarry-boundary demarcation, benchmarks or other monitoring related infrastructure at the sites itself.

Norms versus Violations

There are detailed safeguards available in law – Tamil Nadu being the only state in

India to have nationalised the mining of river sand in 2003 – under the Tamil Nadu Minor

Minerals Concession Rules of 1959, last amended in 2005 – and the rulings of the higher

courts seeking to remove lacunae in sand mining. These safeguards are dutifully reflected as

conditions in all the mining permits issued in Kanchipuram District from time to time. But

the FFT was confronted with the flagrant violation of these norms on the ground.

S.No Applicable Norms/Conditions Violations

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Palar at Pazhayaseevaram, Pinayur

and Pazhaveri: The permits issued by

District Collector (DC)s were for

44.22 hectares in Pazhaveri (Survey

No. 328, 26-03-2009, now lapsed) and

4.85 hectares in Pinayur (Survey No.

404, 26-06-2013) only.

Rampant illegal mining across huge tracts of

the Palar falling in the contiguous villages of

Pazhayaseevaram, Pinayur and Pazhaveri on

the north and south banks of Palar –

estimated at approximately 200 hectares.

Locals said this has been happening over the

last 4½ years.

20.9 meter is the maximum depth

permitted for sand mining in a river

bed (Source: Mining permits by DCs

dated 26-03-2009 and 26-06-2013 )

Sand mined almost uniformly upto 7.7 and9.2m in Pazhayaseevaram, Pinayur and

Pazhaveri in the Palar.

Sand mined upto depths of 9-12 meters in

stretch of Cheyyar surveyed, exposing the

clay bed of the river.

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50 meter minimum distance to be

maintained from the banks (Source:

Mining permits by DCs dated 26-03-

2009 and 26-06-2013 )

Quarrying of the near-entire width of the

Cheyyar – varying from 130-450 meters

along the 15km. stretch from Magaral to

Thirumukkoodal.

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500 meter minimum distance to be

maintained from water-bearing and

other infrastructure (Source: Mining

permits by DCs dated 26-03-2009 and

26-06-2013 )

Sand has been removed within 3-6 meters

distance and for depths of 9 meters, around 6

river intake wells of the TWAD Board’s

Taambaram-Pallavaram Kootu Kudineer

Thittam and 3 others to the east of it.

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Use of heavy machinery is banned and

only manual means to be employed in

the mining activity on the river bed as

set out by a High Court ruling and

Heavy machinery such as Poclains and 20-

30 tonne trucks are being used to quarry

sand at Kavanthandalam in Cheyyar.



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subsequent GO by GoTN (Source:

Mining permit by DC dated 26-06-

2013 )

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The quarrying should not disturb the

natural gradients or otherwise impede

the water flows in the river or through

surplus water flow channels (Source:Mining permits by DC dated 26-03-

2009)

The Palur Periya Eri Ootru Kaalvai at

Pazhayaseevaram village has been turned

into a semi-pucca track – continued into the

river bed of the Palar and joins several other raised semi-pucca tracks criss-crossing the

river and emerges at Pazhaveri on the

opposite bank – all these tracks on river beds

are dedicated to tractor traffic to and from

the river bed.

On the southern bank of Palar at Pinayur,

two large, centuries old channels – the

Salavakam Kaalvai and Arumpuliyur-

Pinayur Kaalvai – were untraceable.

Presence of a full-fledged road traversing the

width of the Cheyyar between Sitthathur and

Vayalakkavur.

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Cutting or damaging of any trees is not

allowed (Source:Appendix XI (see

Rule 3) of

TNMMCR)

In Puliyambakkam village, almost all the

trees in a social forestry tract on the south

Palar bank were felled for mining the sand

beneath.

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Mining should be carried out under

the supervision of PWD (WRD)

officials (Source: Mining permit by

DCs dated 26-03-2009)

Total absence of any official of Government

at the quarry sites or stockyards. Locals also

report that officials are seldom to be seen in

the mining sites.

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Detailed transport passes to be issued

by PWD-WRD for every 2 units of

sand load transported, mentioning

vehicle registration number, name of

the driver, where it is headed to, when

it is expected to reach, etc (Source:

RTI reply by EE, WRD, Lower Palar

basin dated 26.09.2013)

No such passes were seen. Private

individuals at the staging yard at Pazhaveri

on the south bank of the Palar, refused to

give any information.

All the 6-unit trucks leaving the Pazhaveri

yard were only inter-carting the sand to the

massive stockyard at Sankarapuram on the

opposite bank of the river.

10

Records of mining should be

maintained by PWD-WRD (Source:

RTI reply by EE, WRD, Lower Palar

basin dated 26.09.2013)

No field office maintaining records of the

quantities of sand quarried loaded or inter-

carted to any of the stockyards on the river

banks.

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Mining should start only after

demarcation/benchmarking of the

permitted area by erecting boundary

stones on all sides

(Source: Mining permit by DC dated

Total lack of any sign of boundaries

demarcated or benchmarks established to

monitor the extent and depth of mining



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26-06-2013)

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Mining should be carried out in an

eco-friendly and environmentally

sustainable manner (Source: Mining

permit by DC dated 26-06-2013 )

Irreversible loss of aquifer in all sites

surveyed, drastic fall in water table levels

reported in all the villages along the

stretches of the rivers in question.

Increased levels of dust and noise pollution.

13Mining should be carried out carefullywithout affecting the local people,

farm lands and livestock in the area

(Source: Mining permit by DC dated

26-06-2013 )

Reduced drinking water supply conditions inPazhayaseevaram Chinna Colony due to

decreased water availability.

Contamination of drinking water sources in

Vayalakkavur.

Negative impacts on livelihood security –

including agriculture and animal husbandry

– and health.

Increased risks posed to the villagers and

other road users because of the continuous

movement of heavy vehicles carrying sand

on the Kanchipuram-Chengalpet roads to

Chennai.

Other major concerns

1. Hoarding of tens-of-lakh units of river sand in private stockyards at Sankarapuram on

the Palar – allegedly formed by diverting agricultural land belonging to the Lakshmi

Narayanaswamy Thirukovil in Pazhayaseevaram – and Kavanthandalam on the

Cheyyar with its man-made mountains of sand of some 80-100 feet high. Both these

sand stockyards were claimed to be ‘second-sales points,’ maintained supposedly to

tide over the monsoon when mining will be difficult.

2. Widely reported co-optation of inhabitants of the affected villages during the period

of active mining in each area – typically 4-6 months – by payment of Rs. 1000 by the

illegal miners per month per Family Card, often routed through the Village

Panchayats, especially along the Cheyyar, buying temporary acquiescence while

creating an environment of fear and despondency among the people faced with the

aftermath of the mining.

3. Large scale recruitment of manual quarrying-loading teams, comprising of around 10

members-to-a-tractor engaged in the mining at Pazhayaseevaram-Pinayur-Pazhaveriin the Palar, from local villages and such far-flung places as Dharmapuri and

Cuddalur, including the arrangements for their accommodation in a Kalyana

Mandapam in the area. This indicates the highly organised, private-interest owned and

possibly monopoly nature of the mining activity.

4. Use of several hundreds of tractors and trailers in the quarrying and inter-carting of

sand from the Palar river bed to the staging yard at Pazhaveri. These vehicles are

normally meant for agricultural use only and commonly procured with the help of

bank loans.



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Plunder in Progress

In the Palar quarries visited, stretching for about 5km. from Pazhayaseevaram and

Pinayur in the east, through Pazhaveri, Thirumukkoodal, Angambakkam and Puliyambakkam

in the west, an estimated 108 lakh units of sand (1 unit = 100 cubic feet) have been mined in

the course of the last 4.5 years, with the mining concentrated now in the eastern third of this

stretch and threatening to move further eastwards.

In the Cheyyar, the team saw a much longer (albeit narrower) course of some 15km., beginning in Magaral in the west and moving through Kavanthandalam, Elaiyanar Velur,

Sitthathur, Vayalakavur and Pullambakkam to end at the confluence with the Palar at

Thirumukkoodal in the east, stripped naked to the clay of the river bed almost 30 to 40 feet

below its banks and involving about 127 lakh units of sand.

Taken together, the market value of the estimated 235 lakh units of sand quarried

from these two sections of the rivers concerned alone is Rs. 5875 crores, estimated at the

Sankarapuram river-bank stockyard rate of Rs. 2500 per unit. And this is only the proverbial

tip of the iceberg.

In contrast, the Executive Engineer- WRD, Lower Palar Basin Division,

Kanchipuram, in a reply dated 4-09-2013 to a question submitted under the RTI Act by a

resident of Pazhayaseevaram village, gave the total quantity of river sand mined in the entire

Division over the 5 year period from August 2008 to July 2013 as 24.21 lakh units with the

total revenue to Government for the same being Rs. 72.63 crores at the Government rate of

Rs. 315 per unit inclusive of loading charges and taxes.

Official Responses – Adroit Acknowledgement, Denials and Ducking

The responses of the officials we met in this regard were strikingly uniform. Whether

it was the Executive Engineer, PWD-WRD, Lower Palar Basin Division, the Superintendent

of Police, or the Additional Director, Geology & Mining Department, Kanchipuram, theydenied the prevalence of sand mining in Pazhayaseevaram and other areas without quarrying

permits while acknowledging the existence of illegal sand mining by a ‘bullock -cart sand-

mini ng mafia.’ They also blamed the local people for aiding and abetting the theft of sand

while side-stepping their own responsibility to quarry, monitor, keep records, ensure

compliance to conditions and act against offenders, especially when they themselves reported

knowledge of illegal mining.

The District Collector, Kanchipuram, while sharing the views of his deputies was

candid enough to say, “It is not possible to stop the mining activity as the construction work

of MNCs and Government projects in Chennai will be affected, therefore it is essential tomaintain the supply of river sand to Chennai.”

According to him, even if he wished to act to stop the illegal mining, it was

impossible as “information on any planned action is leaked almost immediately to the groups

involved in the mining – with mobile phones today, even on-the-spot plans to act are

frustrated as the minimum time required to form a team of officials is sufficient for the illicit

miners to melt away. It could well be our own people who are responsible for this.”

Expressing his powerlessness and inability to do anything meaningfully to contain

large scale illegal sand mining the Collector put forward a peculiar solution to stop the sand

mining: “the only way in which we can tackle this issue is by building check dams that will

flood the sand quarries in the river, thereby preventing mining.”



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Who is Responsible?

A reply dated 26-09-2013 furnished by the Executive Engineer - WRD, Kanchipuram,

to a question under the RTI Act from the Fact-finding Team, reaffirms that the following

arms of Government are responsible for the river sand mining: ‘WRD does the quarrying

operation. The quarried sand is loaded into lorries which intend to buy sand.’

a.

Demarcation, monitoring of mining and monitoring of distribution at sand depot – jointly by Public Works - Water Resources Department, Geology and Mines

Department and Revenue Department.

b. Record keeping – Public Works - Water Resources Department.

It is thus clear that although the law prescribes clear division of authority and

responsibility, none of the official agencies are fulfilling the basic minimum standards

of monitoring expected of them. It is impossible that large scale sand mining can take

place without one or the other department getting knowledge of the same. All of them,

individually and collectively, seem complicit in directly and/or indirectly supporting

or conniving in the plundering of a valuable common natural resource.

Recent Developments

The FFT came to know that on 18-09-2013, the District administration suddenly

became aware of the not-wholly legal grounding of the Sankarapuram stockyard and of the

existence of rampant illegal sand mining, resulting in a flurry of orders to stop the sand

mining and close the stock yards. On 20-09-2013, a single judge of the Madras High Court

ruling in a writ filed by a lorry owners’ association in 2011, imposed a ban on river sand

mining in Kanchipuram and Thiruvallur Districts and ordered a CBI inquiry to fix

responsibility and estimate loss of revenue to Government, while pulling up the district

officials for their dereliction of duty and abetment of crime. Reacting with surprising alacrity,the Government got the judgement stayed, while the petition was withdrawn soon after. This

is part of a pattern that illuminates the labyrinthine and powerful interests at work in the

business of natural resource exploitation in general and sand mining in particular.

Conclusions: Nailing the Lies of Government

1. Our findings clearly indicate that very large scale illegal river sand mining has been

going on for several years and for the past four years at least at the sites reviewed, in

the Palar and Cheyyar in Kanchipuram District. There are strong grounds to believe

that over 90% of the estimated quantity of sand mined from the two stretches of thePalar and Cheyyar surveyed, totalling to 235 lakh units, has been mined illegally.

2. Currently, the control of the sand mining activity remains only nominally under the

purview of the State, with ample scope for the looting by private players with overt

and covert support by the political and administrative establishment.

3. A significant proportion of this stolen natural resource is hoarded at the private

stockyards at Sankarapuram and Kavanthandalam. The maintenance of a staging yard

at Pazhaveri supposedly under Government control, is used to dissociate the

responsibility of Government to oversee the sale/distribution of river sand, once the

material leaves this site.



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4. The massive scale and highly organised nature of the illegal mining operations in

river sand mining in Kanchipuram District, witnessed by the FFT, gives credence to

the widely held view that the entire sand mining business in the State is in the hands

of a few people.

5. All the officials we met at the District level are fully aware of the widespread

prevalence of illegal river sand mining and understand the scale and seriousness of the

crimes being committed against the people. At best they are caught between the frying pan and the fire and can be charged with dereliction of duty, at worst they are abettors

of crime.

6. And to mask their complicity, the District officials quote the number of cases against

illegal sand miners (1212 in 2011 and 1505 in 2012) including vehicles seized- 1491

in 2011 (533 lorries, 21 JCBs, 32 Tractors, 905 bullock carts) and 1717 in 2012 of

(406 lorries, 93 tractors, 61 JCBs, 1157 bullock carts).

The officials said that there was an increase in the number of vehicles seized from

2011 to 2012. The absurdity of this statement is seen in the fact that 61% of the

vehicles in 2011 and 67% of the vehicles in 2012 are bullock carts. Only extreme

mental calisthenics can explain how the bullock-carts created vast, cratered

wastelands of the river beds and the man-made mountains of sand in the stockyards.

7. The scale and extent of the river sand mining in Palar and Cheyyar basins have

irreversibly compromised the water and food security of the region, besides putting

the rehabilitation of its traditional water management infrastructure out of reach and

wringing dry the TWAD Board’s Tambaram-Pallavaram Kootu Kudineer Thittam.

8. The exposed river beds, the weakened banks and the gouged out flood channels

together make for increased risks of both drought and flooding, taking us down the

path of an impending anthropogenic ecological disaster of epic proportions.

9. Notwithstanding the huge sums of money obviously implicated in this – literally – daylight robbery of an invaluable natural and common resource, it is the attack on our

collective future that is impossible to estimate in monetary terms. It is an attack that

imperils the water security of a large and densely populated region, including the city

of Chennai – whose untrammelled growth and insatiable appetite for natural resources

is ironically, the major source of the problem – a region with a rich and centuries old

history of successful water management and agricultural practices. It is an attack on

the very basis of our sustenance with the distinctly imminent risk of runaway

disruptive ecological and socio-cultural outcomes, including the loss of tree cover,

higher surface temperatures and parched soils leading to desertification andheightened threats to food and livelihood security that may mean more ecological

refugees and general impoverishment. It is no less than an attack on the very species

itself. In a world that abounds with madness and terror of various hues, what could be

more insane or terrible?

Recommendations

The scale and extent of illegal sand mining and very well organised plunder of river

sand the FFT saw in Kanchipuram district may not be restricted to this particular district or

river basin. We fear that there is every possibility for this type of illegal rampant sand mining

occurring in other river basins too. Considering the impact of such large scale illegal sand



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mining on ecology, water, agriculture, and health etc., our recommendations focus on the

entire state which obviously includes Palar and Cheyyar river basins too.

Immediate and short-term:

1. Government must impose a State-wide ban on all river sand mining forthwith until the

constitution and operationalization of an appropriately sensitised, impartial, open,

transparent and publicly accountable instituitional mechanism to oversee the planning,

extraction and distribution of river sand as also the continuous review andrehabilitation of quarried sites.

2. Government must order an impartial inquiry by the CBI into all the criminal law

issues surrounding the illegal sand mining activity across the State, over the last 5

years.

3. Government must immediately seize all stocks of river sand maintained at stockyards

currently managed by private sand quarrying interests and directly handle the sales of

these stocks to legitimate end users only, at rates to be determined by the

Government, pending the outcome of the CBI enquiry and the constitution of an

alternative mechanism to govern the activity, as recommended in paragraph 1 above.

4. Government must fix responsibility for the illegal sand mining activity across Tamil

Nadu, over the last 5 years and initiate action against all private individuals and

organisations and officers of Government at all levels of the chain of command

irrespective of whether the officials are retired, promoted or transferred out of the

area/position in question. No favour should be shown to anyone guilty of permitting

such sand mining to take place and penal actions, including recovering the costs,

damages and penalties from those found responsible

5. Government must take steps to recover and return the stolen sand to its rightful and

natural place in the river beds, immediately on completion of the processes of

accounting, steadfastly avoiding the temptation to find less-than-reasonable uses for the mineral or false and partial excuses of costs that this may involve.

6. Government must bring out a White Paper on the status of river sand mining and the

impact on the rivers and local communities concerned, including the regional level

ecological implications for water, food and livelihood security and assess the

distribution and category-wise demand for river sand in the construction industry,

across the State of Tamil Nadu, since the nationalisation of the activity in 2003. This

report should be prepared on an urgent basis, within a definite time frame and made

public immediately on completion.

7.

There should be a state wide public discussion and debate over the White Paper whichshould eventually lead to the formulation of a sound policy on sand mining and

institutionalisation of an independent, open, transparent, accountable and democratic

monitoring institution appropriately empowered by law to safeguard policy and the

laws of the land.

Medium and long-term:

8. Government must commission regional studies that look at riverine ecologies as

complex, inter-dependent systems and cease to treat water or sand as narrow

economic goods. State and local governments, government departments and boards,

public sector corporations and professional bodies – especially those connected with



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urban and regional planning, architecture and building, water resources conservation

and management and administration – need to independently but in co-ordinated

fashion, review the scale and rate at which we can viably extract these and other

natural resources for our carefully considered and essential needs, while putting in

place structures designed to curb current patterns of unmitigated consumption, retard

wasteful practices and promote increasingly holistic alternatives. These studies must

be prioritised and phased to yield real-time inputs that can be used to inform allmedium and long-term programs.

9. Government must take steps on a priority basis to augment the availability of ground

water, maintain water quality and protect sources from contamination – especially

along the courses of rivers and streams and their watersheds and springs, dovetailing

these measures with the existing proposals/programs to rehabilitate water storage

structures – including the construction of check dams where appropriate, and such

other initiatives that may be informed by the studies mentioned in paragraph 7. These

measures should be phased across the State with the most critical, water-stressed

blocks in the river basins concerned taken up first.

10. Government must undertake steps to rehabilitate the stricken rivers of Tamil Nadu,

including rehabilitation of the damage to river banks, river beds and water

management and other infrastructure affected by the rampant sand mining, in the

short and medium term and the restitution of existing, time-tested watershed

management practices and their infrastructural networks, over the medium and long

term.

11. Government must treat the need for these measures, as the basis for the revitalisation

of the agricultural economy in the State, including reviews of cropping practices in

favour of food crops, the re-introduction of traditional, nutritious, naturally pest- and

drought-resistant varieties of grain, the phasing out of chemical and mechanicalfarming and the recasting of State policies with regard to procurement and minimum

support prices, warehousing and the Public Distribution System.

12. While stressing on the important and key role of the Government, the FFT

nevertheless would like to point out that a major responsibility also rests on citizens

and members of civil society to actively play a role in demanding accountability of

state agencies as also to start questioning the current consumption-centred,

aggrandising and destructive development paradigm which is being pushed

aggressively. At the end of the day we feel that citizens also have to own

responsibility for the destruction of common resources and therefore bear aresponsibility to protect and rejuvenate them. At the core of this enterprise is the

systemic perspective that we cannot hope to build a long term heaven on the basis of a

series of short-run hells.

Released to the Press at Chennai Press club on 9th October 2013

Signatures of members of Fact-finding Team

Documents

FINAL-PUCL-Press Meet-Sand Mining in River Beds-9thOct2013