BENGALURU: Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhuswamy on Friday clarified to the Assembly that the Supreme Court has not yet taken Karnataka’s appeal to approve the release of Rs 19,443 crore, meant for the comprehensive environment plan for mining impact zones in Ballari, Tumakuru and Chitradurga districts.
During Question Hour, Ballari BJP MLA G Somashekara Reddy pointed out that since 2010, no grants have been released to the Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration Corporation (KMERC). Replying to him, Mines and Geology Minister Halappa Achar said, “An Interlocutory Application (IA) was filed, and since May 2020, the government has appealed to the top court, as many as eight times, to hear the case. Our lawyers have also orally appealed twice.
On February 16 this year, when the Solicitor General mentioned about the case, the judge said that he will consider setting up of a special bench to hear the state’s case and also the IAs submitted by others.”Somashekara Reddy then pointed out that in the case of Odisha, the SC had given its approval for the release of funds meant for the restoration and rehabilitation works.
Intervening in the debate, Madhuswamy said the Karnataka government is also keen on getting the funds released to the KMERC, which was incorporated for the purpose under Companies Act 2013 as a Special Purpose Vehicle(SPV) on June 30, 2014. “When Ranjan Gogoi was the CJI, he had disposed of Odisha’s case. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, me and Govind Karjol have discussed the issue with our Supreme Court counsel and we hope that it will take up the case for hearing in April”, he stated.
If the funds are released, Ballari and Vijayanagara districts together will get the lion’s share of Rs 13,378 crore for restoration of places damaged due to mining. Madhuswamy had earlier proposed to the government to construct a super-specialty hospital at Kibbanahalli Cross in his Chikkanayakanahalli Assembly constituency, which was also affected by rampant mining.
