A joint-inspection team from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and various departments of Tamil Nadu, including the mining department, prepared a report in four days to allegedly exonerate the state’s powerful sand-mining lobby, HuffPost India has found.
HuffPost India’s investigations reveal this “Joint Inspection Report” was an effort to derail a high-stakes state government investigation into illegal beach sand-mining cartels.
The sand-mining companies obtained this report via the Right to Information Act and used it to contradict the government’s stance in the Madras High Court……