Black sand-mining: Pinarayi rebuts Sudheeran’s charge

Leader of Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan has opposed senior Congress leader VM Sudheeran’s statement that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has opened the door to the private sector for mineral-rich black sand mining along the Kerala coast.

He expressed surprise that Mr. Sudheeran had made this “factually incorrect” statement at a time when he was strongly criticizing the new UDF government’s black sand mining policy.

Mr. Sudheeran on Thursday morning had said that it was the Pinarayi government that had resumed sand mining activities along the Alappuzha coast and claimed that sand clearing and removal of sand as part of the dredging measure was a permanent solution to the long-standing waterlogging in Kuttanad. He is the public sector of sand mining, Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd. He claimed that the sand was carried out by companies such as CMRL.

Replying to Mr. Sudheeran on Facebook, Mr. Vijayan said that it was the Congress government at the Center that first gave the private sector the opportunity to undertake mining.

The AK Antony and Oommen Chandy governments, which were in power in Kerala between 2001 and 2006, followed this path and allowed privatization of black sand mining in the state. He alleged that even when strong public protests broke out on this issue following the tsunami disaster, the UDF government ignored them and continued with its decision to allow black sand mining by the private sector.

He claimed that the LDF government, which came to power in 2006, took a firm stand against allowing black sand mining to the private sector. When private firms engaged in sand mining appealed to the Union Ministry of Mines, the Congress government as well as the Mining Minister said it had taken decisions in favor of the black sand lobby.

However, the LDF government did not yield, following which the mining companies approached the Supreme Court against the State government’s stand.

Mr. Vijayan alleged that when the UDF came back to power in 2011, it adopted an approach where it deliberately lost cases filed by mining firms. Due to strong public protests, the UDF government was unable to implement the decision allowing private companies to enter the sand mining area.

He said when the LDF came to power again in 2016, no private firm was given the opportunity to undertake sand mining anywhere in the state for the next 10 years.

Mr. Vijayan said when the Center made amendments to the minor mining licensing rules in 2023 in favor of the black sand lobby, the LDF government strongly opposed it, as a result of which the Center had to withdraw the amendment.

He said that for the last decade, LDF has taken an uncompromising stand against the private black sand mining lobby. It also introduced the concept of a public sector-based Rare Earth Corridor.

The current UDF government had quashed this in the Budget and now adopted a positive stance of allowing private sector entry into black sand mining, following the Union government’s line. Mr. Vijayan claimed that it was clear that the Budget proposal to establish a Rare Earth Critical Mineral Corridor served the interest of the private black sand mining lobby.

It is known to all that UDF governments have always been in favor of allowing the private sector to engage in black sand mining and Mr. Sudheeran himself had earlier harshly criticized these decisions of the UDF.

Mr. Vijayan said Mr. Sudheeran’s sudden comeback, raising false allegations against the LDF, must be his way of balancing his criticism of the government run by his own party.