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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Supreme Court panel report on Bellary illegal mining in early February by Meera Mohanty

Supreme Court panel report on Bellary illegal mining in early February by Meera Mohanty

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published Published on Jan 27, 2012   modified Modified on Jan 27, 2012

The Supreme Court-appointed committee investigating illegal iron ore mining in Karnataka is tying up loose ends in Bellary district and will be submitting its final report early next month. The court's forest bench is to hear the case again on February 3. 

The Central Empowered Committee (CEC), whose investigations prompted the Supreme Court to suspend mining in iron ore-rich areas of the state, affecting nearly a fourth of the country's production, has looked into every aspect of the ore's mining in the state. Investigations have been on for a year. 

Of the 150-odd mines in Bellary, Chitradurga and Tunkur, only a fifth, or 26 leases, have so far been found blameless. The court's interim mining ban since July applied to all, except state miner NMDC, which was asked to supply a million tonne a month to sustain state steel and sponge iron plants. 

Sources close to the panel said it could recommend allowing some more mine to resume operations. Meanwhile, Karnataka has already recommended cancellation of 24 mines based on the interim reports of the Lokayukta and CEC. 

The current report will not cover the role played by corporate houses JSW and Adani, as had been sought by the court, as it could take another six months, an official said. The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is yet to submit its chargesheet in the Karnataka matter, has also been asked to look into a boundary dispute of a mine owned by NMDC. 

The CEC's current trip to Bellary was to review certain complex boundary disputes. For example, it went looking for a worn out land record document in the sub-registrar's office, which was too delicate to be moved. The document has a map and a line on it, which is missing in subsequent documents. 

This reference line could determine the fate of mines belonging to Ramgad Minerals, a sister concern of miner MSPL, and that of its neighbours Trident Mineral, P Vengannashetty & Brothers and SB Minerals. Incidentally, Bellary's first collector was Thomas Munroe, who laid down the Ryotwari system under which the state could collect revenue directly form individual landowners. 

The team was to also visit a mine belonging to MSPL in the Vyasanakere area of Bellary and the mines of SB Minerals, with whom it has an ongoing legal dispute. It also stopped by three mines-Vibhuti Gudda Mines, Tumti and Y Mahabaleshwarappa-which are close to the border with Andhra Pradesh. 

Thus far, the CEC has conducted a survey of lease boundaries and encroachments with the Lokayukta and state officials and submitted several interim reports. It has also initiated auction of 25 million tonnes of mined iron ore, of which 18 million tonnes have already been auctioned for Rs 3,500 crore. The committee has also sold 700,000 tonnes of overburden, which is produced as waste dump during mining, averaging Rs 1,187 a tonne, compared with Rs 15-150 that they were fetching earlier. 

Between November and end-December, the panel also heard individual miners, including NMDC and Sesa Goa, who had contested the findings of the joint survey. They appeared at CEC's courtroom in Delhi with bags full of documents and sometimes teams of lawyers to make their case. 

The panel, assisted by Karnataka's forest and mines officials, will be differentiating between miners who are blameless, the irregular who could be let off with a penalty, and the big violators whose licence could be revoked. Earlier, the CEC had suggested a fine equal to five times the normative market value of looted mineral, but it could be rethinking the penalty on lines of contributions towards an environment development fund.


The Economic Times, 27 January, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/supreme-court-panel-report-on-bellary-illegal-mining-in-early-february/articleshow/11644878.cms


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