Alappuzha: In a major respite for the residents of Mattappally village near Nooranad here, authorities have decided to suspend the excavation of soil from Mattappally Hill temporarily.

An all-party meeting, convened by Agriculture Minister P Prasad at Mavelikkara on Thursday, decided to halt mining activities till the District Collector submits a report. It entrusted the collector to assess whether the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) as laid down by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has been followed while granting permission to mine in the area.

“Geology Department officials have explained that the documents relating to the SOP are not in the files. Prima facie, they do not appear to have followed the SOP for site visits and inspections,” the minister said. He also directed the collector to clarify this aspect while submitting his inspection report, besides taking up the issue of non-compliance of SOP with the High Court.

The collector, meanwhile, has also been asked to convince the court about the ecologically fragile nature of the location, especially whether mining activities would affect the availability of drinking water and if any natural calamities had been reported in the area previously.

“When the Geology Department considers further applications for soil excavation at Palamel panchayat, the decision should be also based on the report pointing to the environmental vulnerability of the region,” the minister added.

The all-party meeting also called for the exploration of alternative sites with less environmental impact to ensure that the National Highway project work was not affected.

Mavelikkara MP Kodikkunnil Suresh, local MLA Arun Kumar, the District Police Chief and others attended the meeting.

Earlier in the day, the minister also visited the mining site. Several residents, including the minister’s mother, turned up to register their complaints against mining as well as the police action last week. Following the interactions, the minister unleashed a scathing criticism against the police for cracking down on the residents.

“The concerns raised by the people are genuine. There was no need for police to unleash violence on innocent people. This place has no history of a law and order situation,” he noted.

The area witnessed widespread protests last week as families residing in the hill’s valley launched a public protest against the mining of soil from Mattappally Hill.

Despite the protester’s assertion that a petition against the mining was under consideration of the High Court division bench, authorities refused to pay heed and gouged out around 30 loads of soil throughout the day. When the residents staged a protest, the police intervened, baton-charged the crowd, and arrested over 100 people. After a brief hiatus, mining resumed at the location under heavy police protection but was wound up soon upon the intervention of the minister.