Tamil Nadu: Rs 16,000 cr granite scam, 50 arrested

Madurai, Sept 17: The Granite scam seems to be costing the DMK leaders some dishonour after union minister and DMK leader MK Alagiri's son was named in the Rs 16,000 crore granite mining scam in Tamil Nadu. With Alagiri's son still absconding, the scam has reached far and high with as many as 50 people arrested in relation to the case.

Alagiri's son, Durai Dayanidhi is still on the run and is on the wanted list of the Tamil Nadu police for his alleged involvement in the granite scam. Durai is a former director of one of the companies involved in the granite mining scam named Olympus granites.

Madurai district SP V Balakrishnan has been quoted as saying, "We have taken action against seven companies and against all of them we have conducted an investigation and found illegalities committed in the mines."

The evidence collected point out that Olympus granites colluded with government officials to illegally quarry the granite mines. According to preliminary reports, the private operators would set up their operations very near to the government mines, they would then quarry on the government land an bring back the blocks of granites into their own stockyard. The government officials would be bribed so as to not report the matter.

The scam has reached such epic proportions since each granite block of 10 cubic metre is worth Rs 30,000 to Rs 60,000. As per initial investigations, granite worth more than Rs 30,000 crore could have been mined from Madurai since the last couple of years.

Madurai Collector Anshul Mishra has been quoted as saying, "I have no reason to believe it can happen on its own. Definitely some involvement of government officials was there and as you see that government officials have been arrested because there are incriminating evidences against them."

The illegal quarrying have been continuing all this while since political parties across the spectrum have been receiving part of the kickbacks so that the matter was never exposed.

OneIndia News