Faced with an opposition barrage on the Union Government granting tungsten mining rights to Hindustan Zinc Ltd. at Arittapatti near Madurai and the state government waking up late in the day, Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday asserted in the Tamil Nadu assembly that he would never allow this and if it happened he won’t remain in office.

He was responding to Leader of the Opposition and AIADMK general Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) during the debate on the government resolution urging the Union Government to cancel the lease granted to the company, a subsidiary of the Vedanta group.

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Moving the resolution, which was passed unanimously, Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan charged the Union Government with disregarding the objections placed by the state government to prevent the auction process.

Arittapatti, where Tungsten mining has been leased, besides being a habitat for rare fauna and flora, houses ancient Jain cave temples with old Tamil inscriptions, stone beds of monks dating back to the early Common Era and other archaeologically significant pre-historic sites. The mining area is also close to the famed 2000-year-old Vaishnavite shrine, Azhagarkoil. Arittapatti region has been declared a Biodiversity Heritage Site in 2022, the resolution said, adding that the state government and the people would never accept mining in the area.

EPS took the government to task, asking why the state government had remained silent for 10 months when the Union Government floated the tender process. “Only after the people of the region, apprehending threats to their livelihood, took to the streets, the Chief Minister wrote to the Prime Minister to give up the project. It was public outrage that had forced the DMK government to oppose it though it remained silent all these months. There is also lack of transparency as well as timely intervention,” he charged and questioned as to why the DMK MPs had not raised their voice against this in Parliament. Duraimurugan’s explanation failed to satisfy EPS and he persisted with seeking an explanation for the late intervention of the state government.

Intervening, the Chief Minister asserted, “As long as I am the Chief Minister I will never ever allow tungsten mining in the state. In the event of that happening I won’t remain in office. We have never been lackadaisical when it comes to people’s welfare and requested the AIADMK members to support the resolution.”

Later, Stalin took to ‘X’ blaming the AIADMK for voting in favour of the amendment to the Mining Act, which vested the power to grant mining lease only with the Union Government. “Now he (EPS) is acting as though he is concerned about the welfare of Tamil Nadu. The AIADMK sustains by spreading canards and EPS remains its identity.”

Meanwhile, BJP state president K Annamalai has said in an ‘X’ post that Minister for Mines, Kishan Reddy had assured him to consider the plea to cancel the lease for tungsten mining in view of the public outrage in the region.