Following the Supreme Court’s directions, officials of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh and also those from the Survey of India have come to Ballari to demarcate the inter-State boundary passing through the Ballari Reserve Forest.
The team of officials held a meeting here on Tuesday and went on a field visit for a survey and demarcation of the boundary. The team visited some of the rock points at Belagal, H. Siddapur and Tumti. They would continue the work of inspecting the existing boundary stones and conduct a survey to fix the boundary in the days to come.
The demarcation of the boundary has been pending for long. Though efforts were made on a couple of occasions earlier, that too, on the directions of the Supreme Court, for reasons best known to officials concerned, the demarcation could not be done. Meanwhile, owing to large-scale mining in the Bellary forest area, some of the boundary pillars were destroyed.
For want of demarcation of the inter-State boundary, a survey of mining lease boundary of a few mines at Tumti and Vittalapuram area in Sandur taluk of Ballari district have been kept pending. TNR Mines, owned by Tapal Ganesh and brothers, is among them. Recently, Mr. Ganesh and his brothers filed an interlocutory application before the Supreme Court seeking an order for early demarcation of the inter-State boundary so that they could claim the sales proceeds of the ore sold from their stockyard besides taking up the process of renewing the lease agreement and getting clearances.
Munish Moudgil, Commissioner, Survey and Land Records, who is heading the Karnataka team, told The Hindu that the survey would be undertaken and boundary demarcated as per the Supreme Court directions. After that a report would be submitted to the apex court, he said.
Illegal mining
Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), owned by the former Minister G. Janardhan Reddy, who has been facing charges of indulging in large-scale illegal mining, is accused of destroying the tri-junction point between Tumti, Vittalpur and Malapanagudi, and plundering natural mineral resources belonging to the State.
A case against the OMC is pending in a Sandur court. The Lokayukta report on illegal mining mentions that tonnes of iron ore were looted. The Central Bureau of Investigation, which is probing alleged illegal mining by OMC, has found evidence in this regard.
