BENGALURU: In a major decision favouring owners of quarries and stone crushers, the cabinet on Wednesday approved the Karnataka Minor Minerals Amendment Act that will ensure collection of uniform royalty across the state, instead of varied fee collected in different districts now.
Members of the Federation of Karnataka Quarry and Stone Crushers Owners Association had gone on strike sometime ago, demanding simplification of rules. “The Act has been approved and it is a major decision of 2023. We should have changed the mineral policy as many items were incorporated in minor minerals. We had set up a sub-committee and held deliberations for over a year. Now concessions will be given for stone quarrying, crushing and supply of materials. The approval and lease renewal of the quarries has been simplified,” said Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhu Swamy.
He said, “Now, if contractors pay the royalty to the PWD department, they need not pay it to the mines department.”The Act, in compliance with the High Court order, will help those applying for mining leases even in case of ‘unsaved applications’ with the mines and geology department. Due to lack of clearances from the other departments, the mines and geology department used to consider them as ‘unsaved’. “Now, if one applies for the lease, it is the responsibility of the department to call for NOCs from other concerned departments,” he said.
Land for sugar factory
The cabinet approved the sanctioning of 82 acres of plain land to set up a sugar factory at Vijayanagara by Hampi Sugars Limited, run by Davanagere BJP Lok Sabha member GM Siddeshwara. He will invest Rs 454.60 crore creating over 2,000 jobs, besides helping farmers who have been producing 8 lakh tonnes of sugarcane.
“Because of digging in the area for iron ore mining, there was no plain land and it was expensive to find one. We are offering the land at the government’s guidance value,” said Tourism Minister Anand Singh, who was at the press briefing along with Madhu Swamy.
A decision has been taken to decentralise the powers to make use of the Rs 23,000 crore funds collected from mining companies against reclamation and rehabilitation of affected areas. The approval was given to grant Rs 74 crore to the event manager of Invest Karnataka 2022 against the expenditure. Against the 17 per cent interim relief promised for government employees, the cabinet approved to provide Rs 7,246.85 crore.