Safety audit soon in districts quarries

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With quarry mishaps mounting, the authorities have decided to conduct a safety audit in all the quarries in the district. Following two successive incidents, the District Collector had  suspended the functioning of all quarries in the district. A committee headed by the Additional District Magistrate has been constituted with the District Geologist and the District Officer of the Pollution Control Board as its members. The committee will verify the various licences that are mandatory for the quarry operations on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2 pm. The committee will give permission to the quarries for functioning based on the verification of the documents. Such permission given to quarries will be informed to the local tahsildar, circle inspector of police and concerned grama panchayat secretary and the details of the quarries will be published on the website trivandrum.gov.inFor operationalising granite quarry mine operations, the basic criteria an operator needs to have is the approved mining licence NOC from the Department of Mining and Geology.In case of revenue land, NOC from Revenue Department will be made mandatory. The explosives licence or an agreement with an approved licence holder to store explosives from the Controller of Explosives, Chennai, apart from the blast man licence from the Director General of Mines Safety, will also be made essential.A consent from the State Pollution Control Board and the grama panchayat will be made mandatory.  To get the certification from the Director General of Mines Safety, the operator of the quarry will have to submit the surface plan for the approved mining area. The mine safety rules specify that the depth of the quarrying face should not exceed 20 feet from the surface. The meeting convened by the District Collector decided that only those quarries that fulfil the criteria will be allowed to operate. This will also help in identifying illegal quarries and penal provisions and revenue recovery can be initiated against them, the meeting  observed.