MANGALORE: The State Government should permit mining operations to be taken up at Kudremukh for five years, as the 30-year lease period had not been exhausted, chairman of the Mines and Labour Welfare Fund of the Ministry of Labour and Employment N. Rama Reddy has said.

Speaking to The Hindu here on Tuesday, Mr. Reddy said the Indira Gandhi Government had given a lease for 30 years in 1976. However, of this period, ten years were spent on setting up mining machinery and the pipeline. The actual mining period started only after ten years and in view of this the Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd. (KIOCL) still had ten years to go before the lease ends, he added.

Mr. Reddy said the State Government should understand this before ordering KIOCL to stop mining operations. He said he would meet Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and convince them that it was not right to order closure of mining operations at Kudremukh.

Mr. Reddy alleged that environmentalists have not studied the mining site properly. According to him, existing reserves in one or two pockets can be mined without damaging the environment. This would create 10,000 jobs for the next ten years. Mr. Reddy said he was in possession of the Union Government order of 1976 and would hand over copies of it to Mr. Kumaraswamy and Mr. Yediyurappa. Earlier, Mr. Reddy met general secretary of the Kudremukh Mazdoor Sangh Sanjeev Murthy.

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