THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Records are showing that the state government cancelled the black sand mining permit given to CMRL five years late.

In 2019, the central government proposed to cancel black sand mining in the private sector. However, the state government issued an order to ban mining in the private sector only in December last year. Mathew Kuzhalnadan MLA said that things became more clear after the documents came out.

"The state government could have taken over the black sand collection site according to the Supreme Court verdict in 2016. The land was not acquired for monthly payment. In 2019, there was a central directive to cancel all private mining contracts. However, the Chief Minister maintained it again. Minister P Rajeev has not replied to the question as to why it was not cancelled", he said.

CM should clarify: V Muraleedharan

Union Minister V Muraleedharan demanded that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should clarify why he waited four years to cancel the contract of CMRL company despite the central rule in 2019 that black sand mining should be done only in the public sector.

"The Chief Minister ignored the central directive to cancel the contract with the private companies. Was this to help those paying bribes to Exalogic? Did the Kerala government understand the central directive only when the monthly payment controversy came out? Those who criticized the Centre for supporting the private sector are the ones who were involved in the blatant looting," Muralidharan said.