Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Thursday directed the Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration Corporation (KMERC) to prioritise the effective implementation of the Comprehensive Development Plan for Mining Sectors and amendment of the Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration Corporation bye law. He instructed the officials to amend the bye-laws of the corporation to make the CM the chairman of the governing body to implement the action plan of the Comprehensive Development Plan for Mining Impact Zones (CEPMIZ) in mine-affected districts as approved by the Supreme Court. The KEMRC was formed as a special purpose vehicle in 2014. Siddaramaiah also inspected the functioning of the KMERC. “As many as 466 villages of four districts — Bellari, Vijayanagara, Chitradurga and Tumakuru — have been declared mine-affected in the state. The Supreme Court has sanctioned and approved an action plan with an estimated cost of Rs 24,996.71 crore for the development of these villages,” Siddaramaiah said in a statement. The statement added, “As per the order of the Supreme Court, Justice B Sudershan Reddy, retired judge of the Supreme Court, has been appointed as the supervising authority to oversee the approval and implementation of the projects. The authority has so far spent a total of Rs 7,634.96 crore in the four districts. As many as 317 proposals were approved.” Siddaramaiah directed the officials to set up an engineering cell in these four districts and prepare an action plan swiftly under the guidance of the district in-charge ministers and deputy commissioners. He pointed out that there is ample opportunity to develop the mine-affected villages and directed the officials to maintain the quality of the works. Forest Minister Ishwara Khandre, Horticulture and Mines and Geology Minister S S Mallikarjun, Chief Minister's political secretaries Dr K Govindaraju and Naseer Ahmed, Additional Chief Secretary to CM Dr Rajneesh Goel, Additional chief secretary to Government and Development Commissioner E V Ramana Reddy and other senior officers were present in the meeting.
