COIMBATORE: Revenue department officials seized three lorries, each carrying 4,500 bricks, from Thadagam on Thursday.
Activists of the Thadagam valley mineral wealth protection committee had alerted the collector and revenue officers about 20 trucks carrying bricks from Thadagam, Nanjundapuram and Veerapandi, passing through the Thadagam and Kovilmedu check posts on Thursday morning.
The collector ordered north revenue divisional officer (RDO) and deputy superintendent of police to check if bricks were being transported from sealed kilns, violating orders of the Madras high court and the collector.
The RDO stopped three lorries carrying bricks.
Revenue officials inspected all the 186 sealed brick kilns to check if bricks were smuggled out of the units.
But they did not find any vehicle there.
The kilns were sealed in March.
“However, they flouted the orders several times in the last two-and-a-half month by operating after nightfall, trying to sell and transport existing stock and even continued mining,” said convenor of the committee S Ganesh.
Brick kiln owners who have appealed to the court for a stay order on the sealing process, said they are in deep debt and sought permission to sell existing stock and raw materials.