The district administration has floated tenders online inviting global players to participate in the auctioning process of granite stones illegally quarried from government poromboke lands.

In the first phase, the administration has floated tender for only 200 granite stones kept at present in the collectorate.

Reasoning that the global tender process would help government to make up the loss that was caused due to illegal quarrying, officials of the mining department said that this was the first time online tender has been called and it would also ensure transparency and accountability in the auction process.

Earlier, the special team, which conducted a survey of illegal granite quarrying in the district after instructions from Collector Anshul Mishra, detected a large number of blocks that were hidden in water bodies and government poromboke lands in Melur and Madurai north taluk. Following this, officials of seized 12,274 granite stones from 93680 cubic metres hidden in villages in Madurai north taluk.

In the meantime, officials also issued notice to the granite companies stating that if any of them claimed ownership for these stones, they should intimate them within 15 days. Responding to their notice, the PRP granite informed the administration that the stones found in 31 survey numbers in these villages belonged to them, officials said