Thiruvananthapuram | March 19, 2016: After procurement of red earth was stalled by a group of environmentalists, the government will formally stop mining red earth from the site of Nirmithi Kendra at Akkulam for NH widening work at Kazhakkoottam. Chief secretary P K Mohanty will issue an order on Monday to stop taking red earth from the site. The order is based on the complaint of environmentalists led by B Sugathakumari, who alleged that the work lacked environment clearance.

The chief secretary said that he had asked additional chief secretary, environment, to file a report on the issue. "Prima facie, it shows that there is no environment clearance for such large-scale mining. An order to stop procurement will be issued on Monday," he said.

Asked whether the clearance of mining and geology department was not enough, the chief secretary said that large-scale mining of red earth for such major work required environment clearance. "It looks to me that there are serious violation of norms. I have asked the environmentalists to approach green tribunal," he said.

The chief secretary said that the procurements for mining such as construction of retaining walls were not followed.

When asked about the possibility of NH widening project getting stalled, Mohanty said that it was indeed government project, but government has no binding to arrange raw materials for the work.

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)