According to reports, the Supreme Court's environment panel, Central Empowered Committee (CEC), on Friday, 19 August 2011, concurred with the Karnataka Lokayukta to report rampant illegal iron ore mining in Chitradurga and Tumkur districts and recommended a complete ban on private mining.
Submitting the CEC's report to a bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices Aftab Alam and Swatanter Kumar, adviser A D N Rao reportedly said the adverse impact on environment in Chitradurga and Tumkur districts was identical to the one witnessed in Bellary and advocated controlled mining as had been ordered by the apex court in Bellary.
On 29 July 2011, the apex Court had suspended all mining activities in Bellary district of Karnataka, observing that extraction of iron ore would not be allowed at the cost of environment degradation.
Reports suggest that the court has issued notice to the Karnataka government and sought its response within a week to the CEC's recommendation that mining activity be completely banned in Chitradurga and Tumkur districts before putting in place an interim arrangement on the lines of the one in Bellary district, where mining is done by public sector undertakings meant to meet the requirement of the domestic steel industry.
Leave a Reply