Latest news with #RRamakrishnan
New Indian Express
25-05-2025
- Politics
- New Indian Express
Madras HC slams former Geology commissioner for fraudulent action favouring illegal mining
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has strongly condemned a senior IAS officer, formerly the Commissioner of Geology and Mining, for passing a 'completely fraudulent, aberrational and unconscionably illegal' order that benefited a lease holder involved in large-scale illegal mining in Tiruppur district. The officer in question, J Jayakanthan currently serving as Secretary of the Water Resources Department, was censured for his 2022 decision to revoke the temporary suspension of a quarrying licence granted to lease holder R Ramakrishnan. This decision was made without following due legal procedures and permitted the resumption of mining operations upon payment of an initial fine of Rs 30 lakh, with the remainder to be paid in instalments. The total penalty imposed at the time was only Rs 10.40 crore. Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy, in a scathing judgment, noted: 'The order of the second respondent is completely fraudulent, aberrational, and unconscionably illegal. It is an affront to the environment and to the entire body of Supreme Court judgments on the subject. This course of action was taken to defraud the Government of a significant sum of money certainly more than Rs 78 crore.'
New Indian Express
13-05-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
Engineers guild urges TN govt to curb prices of construction materials
COIMBATORE/TIRUPPUR/ERODE: The Coimbatore Civil Engineers Association urged the government to regulate prices of construction materials. In a petition submitted by its president R Ramakrishnan to Collector Pavankumar G Giriyappanavar on Monday, the association claimed quarry operators have raised prices of construction materials abnormally in the last one year. They claimed the prices of quarry materials went up by Rs 3,000 per unit. 'Stone quarry owners have been continuously increasing the prices of M-sand, P-sand gravel etc in the last one year. Construction contractors have been affected heavily as they cannot complete the contract within the budget,' said Ramakrishnan. He also suggested the takeover of quarries by the state government. Meanwhile, the Federation of All Civil Engineers Associations of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry also held a demonstration in Tiruppur, demanding steps to reduce the prices of construction materials. Kumar Shanmugam, coordinator of the federation, said, 'Quarry owners continue to raise prices of construction materials . The construction sector has been hit hard by the rise in price of construction materials ranging by 30% to even 100% in the last year.'
