Ramesh bans mining in Bellary for now

Increasing political heat over Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, environment minister Jairam Ramesh has imposed a ban in considering new mining projects from the state till the CM implements the Lokayukta's report fully.

Updated on: Feb 24, 2011, 24:37:30 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

Increasing political heat over Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, environment minister Jairam Ramesh has imposed a ban in considering new mining projects from the state till the CM implements the Lokayukta's report fully.

Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hedge in his report in 2010 had unearthed an illegal mining racket in the Bellary district, where mining was being done in areas for which no permission was taken. He also found that the ore being excavated was more that what had been permitted.

"In furtherance to the objective of controlling illegalities in mining areas, the Central government has decided to impose moratorium on all fresh mining lease applications in Bellary district with immediate effect," said Umakant, assistant inspector general of forests, in his order.

What prompted the order was Karnataka government's failure to heed to the ministry's repeated advice to take concrete action on stopping illegalities in mining areas. "Not much action had been taken," an official said.

The first casualty of the project was Jindal Steel of Sajjan Jindal, which had sought final forest clearance for its iron ore and manganese in Kumaraswamy Range in the Bellary district. The permission was denied and a moratorium was imposed on all new projects from Bellary.

Ramesh added more conditions on the moratorium by asking the state government to present a concrete plan to put in place a foolproof mechanism to control illegal mining and give a time-bound implementation schedule for the same.

He also wanted the state government to present an action taken report on the Lokayukta's report on the illegal mining in the Bellary district, where he had indicted Reddy brothers for being behind the illegal acts in the mining area. Ramesh also wanted to know against whom the cases for illegalities in mining have been booked as claimed by Yeddyurappa and what action has been taken against them.

"The moratorium imposed by the MoEF on fresh applications for diversion of forest land for mining purposes should continue until these concrete actions are taken," Ramesh said in a letter to Karnataka CM.

The letter was written on the day former Prime Minister Dewe Gowda offered in Lok Sabha a CBI inquiry into all cases of corruption in the state, including during tenure of his son H D Kumaraswamy as state chief minister. "I am ready to get arrested if any corruption charges against me are proved," he said, even as BJP members opposed him for raising the Karnataka issue in the house.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.