Lokayukta police to act against officers in cases of illegal quarrying

The Lokayukta police have decided to take action against all the government officials at the local administration in cases of illegal quarrying and sand mining.

A senior Lokayukta police official said the State government gazette notification has fixed the responsibility on officials from Mines and Geology, Revenue, Police and Forest departments to keep a check on illegal mining. The notification issued by the Commerce and Industries Department include two officials with state-wide jurisdiction – Additional Director and Deputy Director of Department of Mines and Geology. It also fixes the responsibility on Deputy Commissioners (DC) and Superintendents of Police (SP) of the respective district.

In the recent cases, the Lokayukta police have booked government officials under sections 4 (1), 21 read with 43 of MMDR Act, rule numbers 43, 46 of Karnataka Minor Mineral Concession Rules and sections 13 (1) (c) (d) and 13 (2) of Prevention of Corruption Act for causing loss to the state exchequer. In one of the cases at Ilkal in Bagalkot, the Lokayukta police arrested Deputy Director of Mines and Geology, Assistant Commissioner, Village Accountant and Revenue Inspector. Soon after this, senior officials, including Tahshildar, DySP and Inspector, obtained anticipatory bails but also conducted raids at other illegal quarrying sites.  

“The loss to the State exchequer through illegal quarrying and mining are in terms of royalty, transport permit fee and service tax. We are following the notification issued by the State government which fixed the responsibility on 15 officials from various departments. We have also prepared a proforma through which the officials will be questioned as to whether they were aware of illegal quarrying in their jurisdiction and whether they have taken any action. If they are ignorant of the activities we will take further course of action.

On Friday, Koppal District Geologist was also arrested for not taking any action against illegal granite quarrying. The officials didn’t even know about the notification,” Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Lokayukta H N S Rao said.

In Davangere recently, Lokayukta raided illegal sand mining sites and seized 2,000 cubic feet of sand. The local administration woke up to the notices issued by the Lokayukta police and within two days seized nearly 20,000 cubic feet of illegal sand in the district, the official said.