SC tells Karnataka mining firms to draw up rehab plan

The Supreme Court on Friday asked mining companies in Karnataka to sit with the centrally empowered committee (CEC) and draw up a reclamation and rehabilitation plan for the region where the excavation has done environmental damage.

This is to be done in two weeks, after which the bench, headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia, will again hear the companies. The court said it will not hear any individual cases regarding the mining companies’ rights and entitlements to the land. All those issues should be settled before the committee, or elsewhere, the court said.

The judges made clear their concern was to preserve the environment. Some miners submitted closing mines would create huge unemployment as thousands of workers were dependent on these mines. However, the court did not pass any order on that argument.

The mines have been classified into A, B and C categories, according to the damage each has done to the ecology. These will be treated according to the facts of each case.

According to the Karnataka Lok Ayukta report, in two orders given last year, the court had shut down some 50 mines accused of illegal operations.

The CEC had also given adverse reports about illegal mining in the state. It suggested reclamation and penal steps against the erring mines. The court had allowed export of iron ore, which had already been excavated and were lying in various harbours.

Following the earlier orders, there was fear in the steel industry that enough ores and minerals would not be available to run steel and other industries dependent on the metal.

In a petition moved by the Samaj Parivartana Samudaya, top companies like Jindal Steel and Adani Enterprises have been named along with politicians like former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa. The court orders have affected firms operating in Bellary, Tumkur and Chitradurga districts.

The three districts account for 25 per cent of the country’s production of iron ore.