The Madras High Court directed the authorities concerned to respond within two weeks to a questionnaire sent by the Court-appointed Special Officer inquiring into allegations of illegal granite mining in Madurai District.

The First Bench of the High Court hearing the case also granted eight weeks time for the final report to be submitted.

The Counsel for the Special Officer, V Suresh, submitting the first status report into the inquiry, sought four weeks to submit the final report.

Some of the authorities including the Madurai Superintendent of Police, Assistant Director (Mines) Madurai, Customs, financial institutions and other agencies concerned were yet to respond to a detailed questionnaire sent out by the Special Officer, he said. The Court had appointed U Sagayam, an IAS officer, to inquire into granite mining in Madurai following a public interest litigation.

The Special Officer has held discussions with government departments in the first phase. These related to understanding the magnitude of the issues. The Officer had also received petitions from the public and had inspected areas where serious violations were committed.

Questionnaires have been sent out to 69 government departments, financial institutions and other agencies and 35 have so far responded, according to sources.

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