Times
of India: Kannur: Monday, 04 May 2015.
Amidst the
deadlock over the tender process for the manual dredging at Azhikkal, the
cooperative societies involved in mining have alleged that the tendering
process has been delayed to help the mafia.
"The
manual dredging was introduced to generate employment for residents involved in
sand mining. It was clearly mentioned that only those cooperative societies
with at least 90% members from the local community will be involved in sand
extraction. All these rules have been violated with the support of
officials," said Shukkoor C K, vice-president of a society.
Cooperative
societies were permitted to manually dredge and mine the sand for construction
purposes essentially to deepen the shipping channel. The decision to allow only
those societies of sand mining workers with 10 sq km area of Azhikkal was aimed
at preventing any possible corruption.
However,
allegations have cropped up that all labourers are now migrants and the
societies are mostly fraudulent. Most of the 19 societies involved in dredging
and sand mining have been set up for other purposes and none of them has 90%
local workers, it has been alleged.
A document
obtained under RTI shows that 19 societies were suspended from dredging but
they are permitted to continue in the name of maintaining status quo as a writ
against the tender process is pending in the court.
A high court
order on March 12 had clearly mentioned that the pendency of writ petitions
will not bar the finalization of tender proceedings in accordance with the
relevant provisions of the law.
IUML leader
and Pappinisseri panchayat member C P Rasheed alleged that the authorities were
not keen on tendering as the process involves corruption worth crores of
rupees. "There is an axis of corruption, involving some top officials in
the ports department and district-level leaders of some political parties,
including the Congress," he said. "Only a high level enquiry can
bring out the truth."
Interestingly,
though the permission is to dredge 12 lakh tonnes of soil and sand in a year,
records put it at around 6.2 lakh in 2012-13 and 3.3 lakh in 2013-14. "At
least 20 lakh tonnes of sand is mined every year, and only a fraction of this
is shown on records," Rasheed alleged.
The government
and the ports department should get around Rs 750 from a tonne of sand mined.
Port
officials said steps were being taken to closely monitor the dredging and the
quantity of sand extracted. "Steps have been initiated to finalize the
tender. We have prepared a list of bidders and submitted it to the high
court," port conservator Manoj Kumar T P said. "Police have also
strengthened the vigil against malpractices."
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