THIRUVANANTHAPURAM | Dec 22, 2016: The crisis in natural rock mining sector is unlikely to end soon. Environmental clearance is one of the prerequisites for mining even for quarries less than five hectares, but many of them haven't submitted applications for it.

The mining and geology department has asked all quarries to submit the mandatory document on environmental clearance before the department gives the permit for quarrying. "The department has asked all the quarries to get the environmental clearance immediately," said T K Ramakrishnan, directorin-charge of the department of mining and geology . But quarry owners who had hoped to get a relaxation from the Supreme Court in the last moment seem to be in a confused state.

The application for environmental clearance has to be first considered by a 11-member district expert appraisal committee and then cleared by the district environmental impact assessment authority headed by the district collector. The issue has brought to a halt the functioning of more than two thirds of the total quarries in the state, creating a huge resource crunch in the construction sector. The status quo directive issued by the Supreme Court that helped the quarries mining the natural rock in the state had expired on December 6.

This forced them to seek environmental clearance before commencing their operations once again. Out of around 2,000 quarries functioning in the state, at least 1,700 have permits from mining and geology department to function for periods ranging from one year to three years.

The remaining quarries are on lease with a maximum period of 12 years.Most of them were granted before the May 18, 2012, order by MoEF made it mandatory for all quarries to have environmental clearance.

The construction sector will be hit severely if licences are not renewed. It will also have an impact on the revenue earned by the government. According to sources, the revenue generated by the mining sector every year is approximately Rs 140 crore. This is likely to drop below Rs 100 crore.

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