Chennai, Jul 12 (IANS): Former Tenkasi MLA K. Raviarunan on Tuesday said that nine out of the 32 stone quarries in Tamil Nadu's Tenkasi district are functioning without any license.

In a statement, he said that the state pollution control board had in response to his RTI query said that 23 quarries were given license by the board. The collector had said that 32 quarries were functioning in the district and that this meant nine quarries were functioning without a license.

Several quarries were moving stones much above the allowed tonnage and that the district authorities are taking a lackadaisical attitude. While only 25 tonnes of stones are allowed to be transported more than 40 tonnes of stones are transported in trucks, he alleged.

A senior transport officer with the Tenkasi office while speaking to IANS pointed out: "We are charging Rs 20,000 rupees for each truck that carry extra stones and in addition to this Rs 2,000 is charged per extra tonne that these trucks carry."

He, however, said that he doesn't know whether the quarries are functioning without a license and it was the district authorities who have to clarify that.

The district authorities, he said, must clarify as to how permission was granted to certain stone quarries to dig stones from 58-meter depth at Andipatti in the district. He said that this has led to water shortages in farm wells in the area.

The former MLA said that he has sent a petition to the state government and to the state pollution control board regarding the functioning of illegal quarries.