The State Cabinet on Friday decided to form a company, Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration Company Ltd. (KMERCL) to rejuvenate the environment and provide basic amenities to people in mining-ravaged areas in Bellary, Tumkur and Chitradurga districts.
A Cabinet meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, decided to form KMERCL to take up work under the Comprehensive Environment Plan for Mining Impact Zone (CEPMIZ).
The decision was taken following a Supreme Court directive to set up a company under Section 25 of the Companies Act.
Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs T.B. Jayachandra told presspersons that the Cabinet has decided to constitute a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) — KMERCL — to implement projects under the CEPMIZ.
Described as one of the first and biggest programmes to mitigate the impact of mining, he said the company would repair the damage caused by mining and will take up afforestation programmes, and address issues in the fields of education, health, nutrition, water supply, employment and minor irrigation.
KMERCL will be headed by the Additional Chief Secretary and the Development Commissioner, and its members will be the Secretaries of the departments of Forest, Mining and Revenue.
KMERCL will receive funds already collected by the monitoring committee from ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ category mines in the form of compensation from sale proceeds of existing stock.
It would receive nearly Rs. 10,000 crore, he said. The Cabinet has also given approval to use the services of State-owned Mineral Exploration Corporation Ltd. (MECL) to study the extent of iron ore mined and reserves left in ‘C’ category mines, to speed up the process of auctioning of mines to comply with directive of the Supreme Court.
A sum of Rs 20.19 crore would be released to MECL, Mr. Jayachandra said.
