Chennai: “There is no chance that a tungsten mining project will come to Tamil Nadu for any reason. We will stop it. If a tungsten mining project comes, I will not be the Chief Minister.”, said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.
A separate government resolution was brought in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly urging the Central Government to immediately cancel the tungsten mining license granted to Hindustan Zinc Company in Nayakkarpatti village of Melur taluk of Madurai district and not to issue any mining license without the permission of the state government. The assembly members then spoke on the government’s separate resolution.
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Edappadi Palaniswami said, “The Central Government has been silent until the Central Government issued a tender for the tungsten mining this year and the license of Hindustan Zinc Limited is finalized. “The news that the Central Mining Department had rejected the state government’s request reached the people of Madurai district and the people of the area engaged in protests and agitations, so a separate resolution was brought against the tungsten mine,” he alleged. In protest, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu, Speaker of the House Duraimurugan, and Deed Registration Minister Murthy responded and spoke. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Stalin, responding to the opposition leader’s accusation, said: The opposition leader asked a question, “You boast that there are so many DMK and its alliance party MPs in Parliament, what have you done?”
In Parliament, the DMK and its alliance party MPs have strongly opposed the Mines and Minerals Development and Guidelines Amendment Act.
I too thought that the opposition leader would not speak without evidence. But our parliamentarians have strongly opposed this on this issue. Not only that, when people were protesting in Madurai, Murthy from the district had gone there to learn about the nature of the protest and assured them that this government would support them to call off the protest. He had informed the protestors that the Chief Minister himself had written a letter in this regard and that he was going to bring a separate resolution in the Legislative Assembly.
When this amendment was brought, we had opposed it. It has been recorded in Parliament. How could we have stopped the law passed by the Central Government? How can we do that when the Central Government is in the majority? The Leader of the Opposition has also said many times that the AIADMK had raised its voice on the Cauvery issue and prevented the House from functioning. Did the AIADMK block the resolution passed by the Central Government at that time?
The Leader of the Opposition has spoken about the delay in this issue. In their view, it may be so. It may even be that we have failed. We did not do this issue in that way. We have pointed out this issue from time to time and have written letters. That is why, I repeat, there is no possibility of a tungsten mining project coming to Tamil Nadu for any reason. We will stop it. If a tungsten mine comes, I will not be in charge of this Chief Minister. Therefore, I kindly request you to pass this separate resolution. This is what Chief Minister Stalin said.
After the heated debate between AIADMK and DMK, the separate resolution brought by the Tamil Nadu government against tungsten mining was unanimously passed in the assembly.
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