The inhabitants express their protest against the proposal on a public hearing held in Vinnamangalam near Ambur on Friday.
The inhabitants of distant villages, including Alankuppam, Kannadikoupam and Periyankoupam, expressed a strong opposition to the proposal for six new stone quarries on a public hearing in the village of Vinnamangalam near Ambur on Friday.
The public hearing, chaired by B. Ajitha Begam, divisional director of Vaniyambadi income, was organized by the Tamil Nadu (TNPCB) pollution Council to find out the opinions of the inhabitants concerned by the proposed project.
“Vinnamangalam and neighboring villages depend on lakes and ponds to irrigate their agricultural land. The new stone quarries threaten our lives and livelihoods,” V. Setha, resident.
The inhabitants said that six private quarries have been working in the village for many years. So they looked against any attempt to open new quarries.
“Public hearings must be compulsorily held to listen to the establishment of new quarries before hearing the population. The whole proceedings will be recorded at the meeting,” said G. Karthik Sangamitran, auxiliary engineer, TNPCB (Tirupattur), Hindus.
According to standards, TNPCB will only organize such public hearing in cases where the proposed quarry or cluster of quarries covers more than five hectares of land. In other words, new quarries or clusters of quarries, which are less than five hectares, will be nodded without public hearing.
TNPCB officials said that the proposed six private stone quarries would be established in the village. Each quarry would cover 1.8 hectares on average. The civic body should provide water supply to a new quarry.
There are about 100 quarries in the district, mostly stone quarries. Most of them are located in Ambur, Kandali, Jolarpet, Natrampalli and Tirupattur, which are well connected to neighboring districts.
It is located along the Palalar River, the village of Vinnamangalam is a large farmer village with an average of 5,000 hectares. The village has around 12,000 voters who depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
The inhabitants said that the proposed stone quarries would pollute water points. Village roads would also be damaged due to frequent truck trips. Regular explosions would cause noise pollution and huge stone pieces of such explosions would fall on agricultural land.
After many years, Vinnamangalam has acquired new roads with bitumen, connecting the agricultural villages with the Chennai-Bengaluru motorway. These would be damaged by trucks, they added.
Published – July 11, 2025 22:24
