JOIN USWith a green signal from the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court, two more mining lessees in Bellary district will soon resume mining.
The two companies, Veerabhadrappa Sangappa & Company and Zeenath Transport Company of Bellary, which have been permission, fall under the ‘A’ category mines. With this, a total of four mining licence holders have been allowed to operate in Bellary and Chitradurga districts.
H R Srinivas, Director, Mines and Geology department on Friday said both companies will soon resume operations. Of the 46 ‘A’ category mines, only 18 were operating prior to the closure in view of the apex court direction.
Now, the government is allowing only those mines which have complied with the reclamation and rehabilitation (R&R) scheme approved by the government.
In all, eight mines, six under category ‘A’ and three under category ‘B’ have got clearance. The combined capacity of these mines is 5.5 million tons a year.
Srinivas said two members of the monitoring committee — Deepak Sharma and U V Singh are touring Bellary to inspect the mining areas.
When his attention was drawn to the demand of the mining industry to allow more ‘A’ category mines to resume operations, Srinivas said whoever has followed the norms and strictly implement the approved R&R, will get permission.