New Delhi, February 26: The Supreme Court today ordered a probe by its committee into alleged illegal mining in Bellary and other forest areas of Karnataka.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia asked the apex court-appointed Central Empowered Committee to conduct the probe and file its report within six weeks.
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 detailed report of Lokayukta justice Santosh Hegde,” he pleaded before a bench also comprising justices Aftab Alam and K S Radhakrishanan.
Earlier, the bench had directed the CEC to probe the Andhra Pradesh side of the Bellary region.
The apex court’s direction came over a petition filed by an NGO Samaj Parivartan Samudaya alleging that the governments in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have failed to stop the rampant illegal mining of iron ore.
It alleged that illegal mining has resulted in “an encroachment of 1114.8 hectares of forest land in Karnataka.”
The NGO requested the apex court to pass “order or direction, directing immediate steps be initiated by both the states and the Union of India to stop all mining and other related activities in forest areas of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka which are in violation.”
–Agencies