SC notice to K'taka on mining near ancient Bellary temple

A Bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said it would hear the government respondents on the allegations of blasting and mining activities near the temple.

Petitioner K Guruprasad Rao has challenged the Karnataka High Court order that dismissed his petition seeking direction to protect the temple which was built in 1540 AD.

“The respondent No 4 (mining company) is carrying out mining activities within 200 meters. The structure of the temple is badly damaged. The water pond inside has been completely polluted. If the mining activity is not stopped, the whole temple will be damaged and it will be an irreversible damage,” said the petition seeking a ban on mining by the company.
Declared as an ancient site under the Ancient and Historic Monuments Act, the temple is a muzrai temple and its structure is unique in its own right, said the petitioner.

Submit BPL families’ data

Meanwhile, pulling up the Centre and the state governments to get their act together on the BPL front,  the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre, all states and Union Territories to submit the data on BPL families  and mode of identification so that no family in the country is deprived of the benefits of distribution of the subsidised food grains.

Fixing Thursday for further hearing, a Bench of Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma said, “You (all states and Union Territories) need to update the data. There are anomalies in the number of BPL beneficiaries provided by the Centre and the states.”