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Journalism of Courage
The Supreme Court today suspended all three mining leases of the Reddy brothers flagship Obulapuram Mining Company OMC Private Limited. And said that it needs to be ascertained if Karnataka Ministers G Janardhana Reddy,Minister for Tourism and Infrastructure and G Karunakara Reddy,Minister for Revenue muscled their way into reserve forest areas.
Not impressed by the brothers complaints of suffering were the court to stop OMCs mining,a Division Bench of Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan and Justice Deepak Verma ordered setting up of an expert committee led by the Survey of India to conduct field inspections of six mining leases.
The expert committee will ascertain if OMC encroached into reserve forest areas of Bellary in the course of its mining operations. If the survey reveals that the mining areas did not result in encroachments,the leases will be released for further operations,the court said.
Of the six,three mining leases belong to OMC over land covering 68.5 hectares,39.5 hectares and 25.98 hectares,respectively,near Obulapuram in Anantpur district. One each belongs to Anantapur Mining Corporation,a partnership firm promoted by the Reddys; YS Mahabaleswarappa and Sons; and Bellary Iron Ores Pvt Ltd promoted by S K Modi. These too are located in Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh.
The court directed the Survey of India to hold a meeting on March 26 to chalk out an action plan and complete the survey of the 68.5-hectare mining area in two weeks and file an interim report before the bench.
The court has scheduled the next hearing on April 9. Each of the six mines will be subject to a similar survey by the committee,which will have an official of the Survey of India,another from the Ministry of Environment and Forests and one each from the Andhra Pradesh Forest and Revenue Departments.
Todays order was passed on a petition filed by the Andhra Pradesh Government against a high court judgment on February 26 that had set aside the states order restraining the Reddy brothers from conducting mining in Obulapuram.
The state government had,on November 25,cancelled the mining leases of the brothers on the basis of a report by the Supreme Courts Central Empowered Committee that OMCs operations had obliterated the Bellary forests.
The half-day long hearing started with Attorney General G E Vahanvati submitting that the Reddys have shifted boundaries of their mining areas and actually entered the reserve forests. He said that an effective survey of the areas could be conducted only if the mining operations are stopped completely.
It is almost as if there is a complete breakdown. There are mine pits in the forest area where 11 lakh metric tonnes of ore has been removed from the forest area. This is a case for urgent orders for suspension or there will be nothing left, the AG said. So far,five surveys of the mining areas have already been done,but to no effect,he added.
Senior advocate KK Venugopal,representing the state government,said,A 40-km road runs from Andhra Pradesh to Karnataka. Once they the trucks carrying ore cross the border they can freely move. He reiterated that pillars marking the boundaries of mining lease areas have been shifted with malafide intentions. So stop mining and let the authorities carry a survey and file a report in this court.
Appearing for OMC,senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi said that his clients,though never had a problem with surveys conducted in the areas,were subject to a well-orchestrated campaign.
There was full-page news items for the past three days,fully knowing that this hearing is coming up. The news reports said that mining officials and even the minister said that they are scared of the Reddys8230; Rohtagi said in court.
This was an apparent reference to Centre admits: Even our men scared of Reddys, which appeared on March 18 as part of an investigative series in The Indian Express.
To this,Justice Verma countered that this was all the more reason that you should come forward and quell this controversy once and for all.
Everything boils down to whether you have exceeded your mining lease area and encroached to the reserve forest area. Of course,you have the right to mine in your lease area but the allegations are that you have exceeded the lease. This has to be ascertained with a thorough survey, Justice Verma said.
Rohtagi told the court that a complete suspension of his mining activities will ruin his export contracts. If they start with mine A,should I stop operations in mine C which is kilometres away? I have suffered for four months,should I suffer again? I can stop the operations in the particular mining area where the survey is to going to be held and continue with the other two, Rohtagi contended.
The entire mining operations has been stopped to facilitate the authorities to conduct the survey as soon as possible, the bench explained.
Vahanvati stood firm and said that the survey is to be held of the entire area,and operations should not be conducted by the miners in bits and patches. Unless mining operations are suspended,we cannot carry on a survey. That is why the previous five surveys were severely criticised, he said.
