The greedy politicians are to blame for miners’ miseries in Tumkur and Chitradurga as per the mining industry. The Central Empowered Committee or CEC appointed by the Supreme Court of India has recommended a mining ban in both these mining districts as an extension of their July 29 th order which suspended mining in Bellary.
The CEC recommendation to ban mining in these two districts is going to adversely affect the legitimate miners in the region. One of them has been mining here since 1956 said that all was well until early 2006 when politicians began eyeing the mining business which involved a huge amount of money following a slump in the real estate business. To make a fast buck, they brought all the ills and wrong doings of Bellary to us.
The Chief Justice S H Kapadia led a three judge forest bench and said that the on-going extraction of iron ore in the region was “reckless”, “irresponsible” and “thoughtless”, leading to adverse impact on ecology. The notice was issued based on the report given by the CEC.
The report of the CEC alleged that the level of illegality and environmental degradation is relatively less in Chitradurga. However, the situation there was rated as far from satisfactory. Public interest had been completely disregarded as per the report.
Source: http://cecindia.org/aboutcec.php