PALAKKAD: The civic body, revenue officials and the Geology department have given a free hand for illegal quarries at Pattithara panchayat at Thrithala assembly segment. As many as 15 quarries were functioning at Kurungattukunnu in the civic body without any permission from the panchayat or other departments. An activist who campaigned against the illegal quarrying in the locality was assaulted by three workers belonging to CITU and STU and his mobile phone which had several documents and photographs about the illegal quarrying was trashed by them.
Thrithala police have registered cases against them on Monday after sitting on the complaint for several days. The civic body is governed by CPM for the past 25 years and the panchayat president V Sujatha along with the top officials of the civic body admit that illegal quarrying is being held. According to the panchayat president several residents of Pattithara are getting jobs in the quarries and there are no solid complaints against the illegal quarries.
The top officials of the civic body who requested anonymity while talking to DC said that unless the civic body council members take a stand against the illegal quarrying, they could not take up the issue. “We know very well that illegal quarries are functioning without our sanction. But, action can be taken only if we get the support of the governing council,” a panchayat official said.
AAP leader Munner Kashimukku, who was attacked by the union workers associated with illegal quarries for running a campaign against them, said that the claim that the quarries were providing jobs to the local people was baseless.
“In the past eight years heavy machines are used in these illegal quarries and the union workers belonging to CITU, INTUC, BMS and STU are guarding the quarries without allowing entry for the activists and media persons in to the quarries. The sound of the blasts is heard every now and then and the movement of tippers carrying the granite stones is visible to all,” he noted. Thrithala MLA V.T. Balram, known as a ‘green MLA’ has failed to effectively interfere in the matter. “He had recently raised the issue in Assembly, but that was too little pressure to prevent the illegal quarries from functioning,” said Muneer.
