mining row - Experts: State ignored HC order

mining row - Experts: State ignored HC order By Shivakumar G Malagi / Jan-2009 If mining companies registered in Andhra Pradesh are encroaching on Karnataka ‘s borders, as claimed by a Lokayukta report on mining irregularities, the state probably has itself to blame for not acting sooner to protect its territory. Senior IFS officer U. V. Singh has in his report said mining companies registered in AP, one of them owned by tourism minister Janardhan Reddy, have encroached on the Ananthpur-Bellary boundary line. Legal experts feel the situ ation could have perhaps been averted if the state had acted on the order of the Karnataka High Court passed in March 1981 directing the secretary, mines and geology department of Karnataka and the revenue secretary of Andhra Pradesh to demarcate the boundary and cease all activities in the disputed area until completion of the exercise. Justice K.A. Swamy, in his judgment on Black Gold Mines (present VG Mines) of Karnataka v/s GRR Mines (present OMC) in the AP mine lease dispute case,had ordered that mining on either side of the inter-state boundary line be stopped until the dispute is settled once and for all. He had directed both states not to grant mining leases within 100 metres on either side of the inter-state boundary line to avoid future confusion. But neither government has made any serious effort to end the border row and have permitted mining operations in the disputed area. “Taking advantage of the boom in the iron ore mining industry, the Andhra government granted mining leases across the inter-state border in 2004-05 and the Karnataka government renewed the existing leases on its boundary line,” says an advocate, Mr Ekambaram. The joint director of the survey and land records department, Gulbarga wrote to his superiors in January 1992 complaining of “domination and non-cooperation” by the AP authorities in demarcating the boundary line during a 1991 joint survey. In August 1996 the Ananthpur deputy commissioner wrote to the Bellary DC the border issue was “pending with the AP government.”