HOPE: Residents of Kamakshipalya eagerly waiting to receive free sewing machines during a Janata Dal (Secular) meeting in Bangalore on Sunday. — Photo: Sampath Kumar G.P.

Bangalore: Minister for Forests and Environment C. Chennigappa claimed on Sunday that curbing illegal mining activity in Bellary district and Kanakapura taluk thereby saving forest wealth worth over Rs. 32,000 crore was among the major achievements of the H.D. Kumaraswamy Government.

He was addressing a huge convention of Janata Dal (Secular) workers here to commemorate the completion of one year by the Kumaraswamy Government.

Mining in Bellary

The Minister said that Bellary district has a population of 22 lakh, but the mineral wealth in the district, including that in the forests, was cornered by 98 powerful persons making a fortune. Mr. Chennigappa said that hundreds of kilometres of roads passing through Bellary district up to the harbour had been destroyed owing to overloading of trucks carrying ore illegally. Thousands of houses and large tracts of agricultural land had a sheet of dust emanated from the mining areas. The contractors had polluted air and people living in the nearby localities have been complaining about deafening noise, he said.

The water bodies had been destroyed, the Minister alleged.

Similarly, in Kanakapura taluk and neighbouring areas, illegal mining has been going on. Only 14 contractors have cornered 423 mines, he said.

Mr. Chennigappa said the Forest Department had curbed all these illegal mining in the area saving around Rs. 2,000 crore to the Government.

The Minister said the Government had started the process of retrieving over 13,600 acres of prime government land in Bangalore and Bangalore Rural districts worth nearly Rs. 60,000 crore.

These lands, he alleged, had been illegally acquired by influential persons, including former Ministers and legislators.

House sites

He said that the coalition Government was distributing four lakh sites/houses to the slum-dwellers in and around Bangalore through the Karnataka Slum Clearance Board.

"It is a shame that the Congress had exploited thousands of families living in dingy huts/tenements in slums such as Sudhama Nagar on Lal Bagh Road and failed to provide them sites or houses," he said.

Mr. Chennigappa, Transport Minister H. Chaluvarayaswamy, H.C. Balakrishna, MLA, and Abdul Azeem, MLC, gave away free sewing machines to poor women and pushcarts to men on the occasion.

G. Sriramiah, president of the labour cell of the Janata Dal (Secular) participated in the function.

Mr. Balakrishna said that users of Magadi Road up to Thippagondana Halli would enjoy the ride now, thanks to the asphalting done by the Public Works Department.

Mr. Chaluvaraya Swamy reiterated the Chief Minister's commitment to waive agricultural loans taken from cooperative banks.

He said the Government has been providing uninterrupted power to farmers, cycles to schoolchildren and Bhagyalakshmi insurance scheme to girls belonging to the below the poverty line families.

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