Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan has challenged the statement made by senior Congress leader V.M. Sudheeran that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had opened the door to the private sector for the mining of mineral-rich black sand along the Kerala coast.

He expressed surprise that this “factually incorrect” statement had come from Mr. Sudheeran, at a time when he had been strongly criticising the black sand mining policy of the new UDF government.

Mr. Sudheeran had on Thursday morning said it was the Pinarayi government which had resumed sand-mining operations along the Alappuzha coast, claiming that removing the sand, as part of a desilting and dredging measure, was the permanent solution to the perennial flooding in Kuttanad. He alleged that the guise was that the sand-mining was being carried out by the public sector Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd. but that the sand was being bought up by firms like CMRL.

Responding to Mr. Sudheeran on Facebook, Mr. Vijayan said it was the Congress government at the Centre that first granted the private sector the opportunity to carry out mining.

The A.K. Antony and Oommen Chandy governments, in power in Kerala between 2001 and 2006, followed this lead and allowed the privatisation of black sand-mining in the State. He alleged that even when strong public protests had erupted over this in the wake of the tsunami disaster, the UDF government ignored these and went ahead with its decision to allow private sector into black sand-mining

He claimed it was the LDF government which came to power in 2006 which took a firm stand against allowing private sector in black sand-mining. When the private firms involved in sand-mining went on appeal with the Union Ministry of Mining, the Congress government as well as the Minister for Mining took decisions favouring the black sand lobby, he said.

However, the LDF government did not yield, following which the mining firms approached the High Court against the State government’s stand.

Mr. Vijayan alleged that when the UDF returned to power in 2011, it had adopted an approach wherein it deliberately lost the cases filed by the mining firms. Because of strong public protests, the UDF government was unable to implement the decision allowing private companies into the sand-mining area.

He said that when the LDF came back to power in 2016, for the next 10 years, no private firm had been allowed an opportunity for sand-mining anywhere in the State.

When the Centre made amendments to the minor mineral licensing rules in 2023 in a manner favourable to the black sand lobby, the LDF government had vehemently opposed this, to the effect that the Centre was forced to withdraw the amendment, Mr. Vijayan said.

He said that for the past ten years, the LDF had maintained an uncompromising stance against the private black sand mining lobby. It also brought forth the concept of a public sector-based Rare Earth Corridor.

The present UDF government had overturned this in the Budget and was now adopting a favourable stance towards allowing private sector entry in black sand mining, toeing the Union government’s line. Mr. Vijayan claimed that it was clear that the Budget proposal for setting up a Rare Earth Critical Mineral Corridor serves the interest of the private black sand-mining lobby.

It is common knowledge that the UDF governments have always been in favour of allowing private sector entry into black sand mining and Mr. Sudheeran himself had previously been sharply critical of these decisions of the UDF .

Mr. Vijayan said Mr. Sudheeran’s sudden turnaround, raising baseless allegations against the LDF, must be his way of balancing out his criticism of the government led by his own party.