By IANS
Madurai : A court here Thursday granted interim stay on a pollution control board’s order to close down a factory belonging to a patron of Tamil Nadu’s opposition AIADMK party.
The decision of the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court comes as relief for S. Vaikuntarajan.
Justices Prafula Kumar Misra and P.R. Shivakumar admitted three writ petitions filed by Vaikuntarajan, granted the interim stay and posted the case for hearing Friday.
His factory is in Tirunelveli district where the Tata group supported by the DMK government is going to start titanium mining.
Vaikuntarajan, a shareholder of Jaya TV, has been accused by the state government of illegally mining garnet sand in Kanyakumari district and extracting rare earths.
The government told the court that mining authorities, during the examination of the sand extracted by the factory, had found that it contained thorium. It said the petitioner was not authorised to mine in that area, that he had stolen the country’s rich minerals and this was a national crime.
Vaikuntarajan has argued that he had the necessary permit to mine in the concerned area.
Both the Tatas and Vaikuntarajan are making a claim on seashore sand on the same stretch of the east coast for their respective business purposes.
The AIADMK has said the government wants Vaikunturajan out of the area so that Tatas can have a free shoreline. The businessman says he is not opposed to the Tatas mining titanium in the same area.
Fearing arrest, Vaikuntarajan had filed an anticipatory bail plea on July 18. He was granted anticipatory bail on Aug 28.
The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) had issued a show-cause notice to him on July 6, saying his factory was inspected and was found producing effluents that were discharged on land, contaminating ground water.
On Aug 30, the TNPCB chairman issued a direction under the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board Act to stop power supply to the factory and close it down.
Vaikuntarajan told the court that he had provided an interim reply to the show-cause notice. He added that the board had not given him any information regarding the reported inspection.
Vaikuntarajan submitted to the court that his factory was only a mineral separation unit, running since 1989.
“No chemical was used in the process and thus there was no question of any pollution,” he said.