Wednesday, Oct 15, 2003
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2003 |
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Karnataka
By Our Staff Correspondent
Mr. Muniyappa told presspersons here: "Under conditional quarrying, mining activities in forest areas will be allowed only if the Forest Department approves it. The mining will be restricted to the periphery of the forests." He clarified that quarrying would not be allowed in the fragile Western Ghats. He pointed out that Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh had allowed quarrying in forest areas. The Minister said that the State's share in the country's granite exports had declined to 15 per cent from a peak of 75 per cent. The State occupied the third position after Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in terms of granite exports. Giving reasons for the decline in exports, he said better quality granite blocks were available in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. While the granite available in Kollegal was good, the black granite available in Chamarajanagar area had limited demand as it was used only for monuments. Pink granite, another variety available in the State, did not have much of a market abroad now, he said. He also said that the Government did not intend to permit the resumption of quarrying in the Kollegal area where quarrying was banned in 1992. Quarrying would not be permitted until the Veerappan menace ended. Mr. Muniyappa said the State had witnessed a progressive increase in the amount of royalty collected from the mining industry. While the total fee collected during the financial year 1999-2000 was Rs. 126 crore, during 2002-03, the amount collected was Rs. 167 crore. The target for the financial year 2003-04 was Rs. 184 crore. However, the target was likely to be exceeded and the royalty could be around Rs. 200 crore. The collection as on date stood at Rs. 85 crore, he said. On the reasons for the increase in royalty collection, Mr. Muniyappa said the State had been witnessing a spurt in road construction, fuelling a demand for construction material. Further, he said that the area of mining in the State had gone up by five per cent leading to increased income to the department. The Minister said the area under illegal quarrying had come down drastically, and claimed that 99 per cent of the illegal quarrying had been stopped. This, he said, was due to the introduction of mobile squads for checking and monitoring illegal quarrying. A sum of Rs. 14.42 lakh had been collected as penalties for illegal quarrying in the south zone alone, he said. Mr. Muniyappa also announced that gram panchayats would be soon allowed to impose royalty for sand mining in their area. The decision to approve sand mining would be made by the respective gram panchayats, which would be allowed to keep 50 per cent of the royalty collected from sand mining. He said the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd. had sought land near Hospet to undertake mining. The existing lease for KIOCL to conduct mining in Chikmagalur district would end in 2005. Earlier, he presided over the quarterly review meeting of the performance of the department's south zone.
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