Alappad: A tale of lost land to mineral sand mining

Agencies
January 11, 2019

Alappad, Jan 11: Abandoned homes, deserted school, heaps of sand, a lone temple and dried up mangroves.

These are the remnants of a once green Ponmana village under the coastal Alappad panchayat in Kollam district in southern Kerala where locals are up in arms against beach sand mining, blaming it for sea erosion eating up their lands.

They claim hamlet after hamlet was 'disappearing' from the map due to mining activities by the Indian Rare Earth (IRE), a central Public Sector Undertaking, and state government-owned Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited (KMML).

Seeking to save their remaining villages, the people of Alappad and nearby hamlets under the banner of Anti-mining People's Protest Council have been on a relay-hunger strike at Vellanathuruthu near here for the past over two months demanding a complete halt to the mining activities.

However, an official of the IRE, when contacted, said the company was following all mining norms.

The two firms together have been engaged in mineral sand mining along the beach off the Kollam coast since the 1960s.

This PTI correspondent saw deserted houses, roads and dried up mangroves in Ponmana village with the protesters claiming this was the scene in several other hamlets too.

In Ponmana, only two families remain, a resident said.

According to the protesters, a lithographic map decades ago had shown the area of Alappad panchayat as 89.5 square kilometre and it has now shrunk to a measly 7.6 square km due to sea erosion caused by the mining.

Alappad is a narrow stretch between Trivandrum-Shoranur (TS) Canal and the Arabian Sea that was commissioned between the 18th and 19th century.

Agitators allege that if this strip of land erodes any further, the backwaters would irreversibly merge with the sea and turn the river waters saline.

This in turn would damage paddy fields of upper Kuttanad, which is below the sea level and known as the rice bowl of Kerala.

"Since ours being a public sector company with strategic importance, there are several monitoring agencies and both the state and the central governments are aware about processes followed by us," the IRE official, who did not want to be named, said.

Around 60 industries of strategic importance, including the Travancore Titanium Products and the KMML, were making use of their services, he added.

Kollam District collector Dr S Karthikeyan said the government was fully aware of the situation. "We will study whether the apprehensions are correct. Then we will take a look at sustainable mining limit."

The district administration had conducted multiple hearings and the government had already given certain suggestions like concentrating on inland mining and reducing sea mining, he said.

"In case of sea mining, they should make groynes. The company is also changing their plans accordingly. They are going to do deep mining," he added.

A groyne is a rigid hydraulic structure built from an ocean shore or from a bank that interrupts water flow and limits the movement of sediment.

K S Sreekumar, a member of the protest council, said nearby villages including Onattukara, Upper Kuttanad and Arattupuzha in Alappuzha district were next in line.

"The agitation is not only for ourselves," he said.

Prasanth (38) left his job in the UAE and returned to his village years ago after the company assured him a job in exchange for land that it could mine.

"The job we got was under a contract that expired after two years. Most villagers have left the area with whatever they got as compensation from the company," he said.

Rohini, an interior designer who is an active member of the protest council, said the residents don't want to leave the place where they grew up.

"The government has assured us a compensation Rs 10 lakh if we give our land for mining. But we cannot leave as this the place we grew up. This is where our culture is, where our job is. We want our children to grow up here.... We want the mining to stop completely," she said.

Sreekumar said if the mining continued, salt water will enter the Pallickal and Achankovil rivers towards the east and ultimately the paddy fields of central Travancore.

"We are trying our level best to project our issue above all other brouhaha, including the one over Sabarimala... We have a larger issue here. We are facing eviction from the land where we spent have spent our lives", he said.

People from various walks of life were participating in the agitation, he said adding no political party had so far pledged support to their cause.

Besides the protest, a social media campaign was also on against mining in the area.

However, a local resident, speaking on condition of anonymity, alleged the campaign was being promoted by private players who wanted to end the government monopoly over mining in the area and take over the task themselves.

Freshwater ecology expert Dr Jayalekshmy V told PTI that the 'uncontrolled' sand mining in Cheriyazheekkal-Alappad area was affecting the ecological stability of Ashtamudi Lake and other associated freshwater fluvial ecosystems.

"Non-sustainable extraction of beach sand has led to the destruction of sand banks and widening of the Pallickal river mouth and during summer when the water content is low, it will lead to the influx of marine water into the river," she said.

This "unusual intrusion" of marine water would alter the natural niches of aquatic organisms, leading to ecological stress related with biological activities like exchange of respiratory gases, fertility and survival of young ones.

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News Network
March 15,2024

SCSBI.jpg

New Delhi, Mar 13: The Supreme Court on Friday took exception to the State Bank of India (SBI) for not disclosing complete details of Electoral Bonds, including unique alfa numeric numbers, furnished to the Election Commission for uploading on the website.

A five-judge Constitution bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud issued notice to the SBI seeking its response on Monday after the court was informed that the issuing bank for the Electoral Bonds has not disclosed unique alfa numeric number of each bond.

"They have not disclosed the bond numbers. It has to be disclosed by the State Bank of India. All details have to be provided by the SBI," the bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, noted.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal said as per the Constitution bench judgment of February 15, 2024, all details were to be disclosed.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted since the SBI was a party to the judgment, notice may be issued to it.

The court said the counsel for SBI should have been here.

"If you see the judgment, we have specified that bond numbers have to be provided," the bench said.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan appeared for the main petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

On an application by the EC, the bench said the details of Electoral Bonds furnished by the poll panel before the top court should be scanned and returned to it for the purpose of uploading on the website.

The Election Commission through advocate Amit Sharma filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to release data on electoral bonds furnished to the top court in terms of previous orders of April 12, 2019 and November 2, 2023.

As per March 11, 2024 order, the Election Commission on Thursday uploaded the data on electoral bonds furnished to it by the SBI.

However, in an application, the poll panel said it had furnished to the Supreme Court a number of sealed envelopes, containing details on EBs encashed by the political parties, during the course of hearing in the matter.

It sought a direction for the return of those sealed envelopes to comply with the directions to upload it on the website as per order of March 11.

On Monday, the Supreme Court had told the SBI to furnish details of purchasers of Electoral Bonds and names of political parties redeemed those instruments by March 12 to the Election Commission, rejecting its plea for extension of time until June 30 for the purpose.

It had then directed the Election Commission to publish the information provided by the SBI on its website on March 15.

In its February 15, 2024 judgment, the SC had declared the Electoral Bonds scheme, introduced in 2018 for donation to political parties, as "unconstitutional" for being violative of the right to information.

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News Network
March 16,2024

Mangaluru: In the wake of complaints regarding middlemen menace, sleuths of Lokayukta on Friday, March 15, conducted a raid at the Mangaluru Urban Development Authority. 

The Lokayukta team found unaccounted money and several files, which were not disposed of for a long period.

Lokayukta SP CA Simon said that the Lokayukta has received complaints that middlemen have been interfering in the MUDA office, and files pertaining to the public are not being cleared on time.

A raid that commenced in the evening on March 13, lasted for 18 hours. During the raid, Lokayukta officials found cash in a bag in MUDA office, and also with officials and others. MUDA officials could not inform the source of money found in their office, the SP said.

Further, he said that many people gathered at the MUDA office during the Lokayukta raid, and have raised complaints about the harassment at the urban development authority. “We have gathered evidence for MUDA officials carrying out file disposal processes through brokers on phone calls. The investigation on the MUDA network will be continued,” he said.

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News Network
March 28,2024

New Delhi: After India summoned an American diplomat over their remarks on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the liquor policy case, the US reiterated on Wednesday its call for "fair, transparent, timely legal processes".

We continue to follow these actions closely, including the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, said US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller while responding to questions on India summoning Gloria Berbena, the US Acting Deputy Chief of Mission in New Delhi.

The meeting at the foreign ministry's South Block office lasted nearly 40 minutes yesterday with India objecting strongly to the US remarks on the arrest of Mr Kejriwal.

Miller also responded to a question on the Congress party's frozen bank accounts, saying, "We are also aware of the Congress party's allegations that tax authorities have frozen some of their bank accounts in a manner that will make it challenging to effectively campaign in the upcoming elections."

He said the US encourages "fair, transparent and timely legal processes" for each of these issues.

"With respect to your first question, I'm not going to talk about any private diplomatic conversations, but of course, what we have said publicly is what I just said from here, that we encourage fair, transparent, timely legal processes. We don't think anyone should object to that," he said.

Mr Kejriwal was arrested last week by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), the third Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader after Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh to be taken into custody in connection with the alleged liquor policy scam.

The US State Department on Tuesday said it is monitoring reports of Mr Kejriwal's arrest and called on New Delhi to ensure "a fair and timely legal process" for the jailed Chief Minister.

India objected to it and warned of "unhealthy precedents".

"States are expected to be respectful of the sovereignty and internal affairs of others, and this responsibility is even more so in case of fellow democracies. It could otherwise end up setting unhealthy precedents," the foreign ministry said.

"India's legal processes are based on an independent judiciary which is committed to objective and timely outcomes. Casting aspersions on that is unwarranted," the ministry stressed.

The US remarks came days after Germany's Foreign Office stressed that Mr Kejriwal is entitled to a fair and impartial trial. The Indian government had reacted strongly and summoned the German envoy, labelling their remark "blatant interference in internal matters".

The excise policy was introduced to bring an overhaul to the liquor business in Delhi, but was scrapped after Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena ordered a probe into the alleged irregularities in the policy. The ED believes the bribe money from the policy was allegedly used for funding the AAP's election campaigns. It has also called Mr Kejriwal a "conspirator" in the case.

His arrest just ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election has also prompted furious protests from the opposition camp.

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