TN moves SC on Sagayam probe of granite scam Julie Mariappan Chennai: Tamil Nadu has approached the Supreme Court against a Madras high court appointing IAS officer U Sagayam as legal commissioner to probe all mining contracts and licences to private companies in the state, saying it was an “exercise in futility”. Noting that it was the state had asked Sagayam to verify illegal mining allegations, the government said his appointment now would only delay action against illegal mining. The court should have considered that Sagayam himself admitted lack of scientific and technical knowhow while preparing his (previous) report. “This anomaly was set right subsequently with technical support provided by the government. It will be unfair if the strenuous work by teams of officers is not given due credit due to the filing of PIL without adequate substance,” it said. The petition said Sagayam had conducted cursory inspections of only three quarries out of 91 in April 2012 and arrived at a conclusion that the loss to the state government was ` `23.42 crore based on assumptions of what he found in his inspections of the three quarries. “He further extrapolated the loss of these quarries to all 91 quarries and came to a fig ure of ` `16,338 crore. In his report, which was sent to the government, he admitted that officials of the inspection team were not scientifically and technically qualified persons and hence they could not estimate the total loss with accuracy,” the petition noted. After Sagayam’s report, the state government swiftly took every measure to stop illegal mining, the petition said. “As a result, several orders were issued against erring persons. Consequently, many of them approached the high court, challenging the actions by the state. The high court granted stays and thereby caused legal impediments to the government from proceeding. In spite of placing this fact before it, the high court bench appointed Sagayam to inspect the mines and submit the report,” it said
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 01:44:49 +0000
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