Moodbidri: Two advocates from the Poovaiah and Company, Advocates and Solicitors from Bangalore, who are representing Legal Services Authority,  arrived in Moodbidri on Sunday August 10  and visited various stone quarries in the area to gather necessary details.

Their visit comes in the wake of a recent High Court directive to the State Mines and Geology Department to conduct a study and submit a report with regard to the loss of lives and other problems arising due to the red stone quarries in the state. The Legal Services Committee had earlier filed a Public Interest Litigation in this regard.

The advocates namely Vikram Hegde and Prateek, visited the quarry in which two sisters Suraksha and Sukanya, aged  7 and 8 respectively had drowned  at Beluvai Maladi on July 20. The advocates also met the parents of the two girls and expressed their surprise over the presence of a quarry within a radius of 50 meters from residential area, in violation of the rule of the Department of Mines and Geology. The two also took serious cognizance of the fact that there were no protective fencing to the dangerous quarry located close by a house.

The two even visited another dangerous stone quarry located on either side of a pathway behind the Karianangady School and took note of the fact that such open quarry pits are a perennial threat to the public including school children.

The advocates later visited the stone quarry area at Doomachandavu where three daughters Vanishree, (12), Meghashree (11) and Yakshitha (6) of Vasu-Seetha Shettigar couple had drowned on July 20.

Speaking to media men later advocate Vikram Hegde said the authorities have failed to take action against many quarries which have violated rules. The quarries should be fenced and once left unused, they should be closed by dumping soil. The government should also think of reusing such lands. A report would be submitted to the High Court, he informed.