SC tells panel to look out for illegal mining in Karnataka

The court passed the order on an oral mention made by advocate Prashant Bhushan who said that the report of the Karnataka Lokayukta clearly stated that mining activities were being carried not only illegally but also stretched to areas categorised as forest land.

“Rampant illegal mining is going on in Karnataka and the same has been recorded by a detailed report of Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde,” Bhushan submitted before the Bench,also comprising Justices Aftab Alam and K S Radhakrishanan.

On January 8,2011 — after the Supreme Court ordered an inspection on November 19,2010 — the CEC had filed a 69-page report that concluded that all six mining leases in the Bellary area in Andhra Pradesh,of which three are owned by G Karunakara Reddy and Janardhana Reddy,were illegal.

The illegalities committed by the brothers,the CEC had found,ranged from mining outside approved lease areas,use of reserved forest for dumping,building five roads in the reserved forest,transport of minerals far in excess of what could have been extracted from the mining pits,to name a few.

One of the Reddys’ leases,the CEC had said,was operating illegally since December 2004.

Bhushan’s mention in court follows a petition filed by his client,NGO Samaj Parivartan Samudaya,alleging that the governments in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have “failed to control the illegal mining that has led to large-scale destruction both of forest land as well as non-forest land and adversely affected the livelihood of local people especially the rural poor”.