Justice Hegde has warned the Departments of Mines and Geology and Forest that if they do not check illegal mining in Karnataka, the State would soon be devoid of its mineral wealth.
 “The quantum of illegal mining and transportation is equivalent, if not more than the legal mining and transportation in the State. The royalty that the Government is getting is nothing compared to the escaped royalty,” said the Lokayukta.
Justice Hegde recently held a meeting with the principal secretaries to the two departments and asked them to change the permit system immediately. “Under the present system, the Mines and Geology Department gives bulk permits with a validity of 30-40 days to mine owners and transporters. Most of them misuse the permits to transport much more than what they account for.
The Forest Department is supposed to issue Form 31 — a permit to mine in the forest area. They, instead of issuing a single permit, issue a complete book of Form 31 to the lessees and transporters with no details of the lorries or the place from where it is being transported to it’s destination. The forms carry the sign and seal of the authorised officer, which leaves a large scope for illegal transportation of mineral wealth,” he said.
The Lokayukta has asked the Departments of Mines and Geology and Forest to issue one permit for one lorry per trip, mentioning the lorry registration; the route it will take; the tonnage etc. “This permit should be collected by the last check post. The Department of Mines and Geology has agreed and is willing to issue single permits with the hologram and computer bar code.
They are also willing to supply computers at all the check posts so that they can tally the permits and cancel them after use, but the Forest Department has told me that it may take them minimum one year’s time to change the permit rules,” he said.
“I find their argument highly unreasonable. Even a truck with a legal permit carries much more than the permissible limit and people with permit to mine in their area, also mine in forest land,” he said. The Lokayukta said that illegal mining and transportation goes unchecked because there are no weigh bridges at most check points, and where there are bridges, there’s a “collusion between the transporters and government officials,” he added.
Justice Hegde said that before the illegal mining scam in Bellary was handed to him for investigation he had deputed a team of Lokayukta police to Mangalore and Bilikere ports to see how overloading of trucks could be checked.
“They told me if lorries are stopped on the highways, it may lead to huge traffic jam. Under the Motor Vehicles Act, action can be taken only if the vehicle is found to be overloaded. For this they need to offload the extra load and there’s no place to dump the ore on the roads. Also, who would clear it? Besides, there could be a law and order situation because most of the port workers are employed by the tippers and their jobs could get affected,” said the Lokayukta.