BENGALURU: Former Union Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilisers, and New and Renewable Energy, Bhagwant Khuba, was allegedly found to be involved in illegal building stone quarrying in Kalaburagi district.
The district administration initiated recovery proceedings against Khuba, who is a former BJP MP, to recover the total penalty of Rs 25.29 crore, treating it as arrears of land revenue under the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, since he is reluctant to pay the penalty, despite the issuance of a series of notices and while also parallelly registering a private complaint against him as per law. The recovery proceedings include seizure of movable and immovable properties of the defaulter, Khuba.
The recovering proceedings were initiated following the action taken by the Upa Lokayukta Justice B Veerappa on the complaint filed by Sanjeevakumara alleging that Khuba was quarrying illegally in more than eight acres in Wacha village of Chittapur taluk of Kalaburagi district.
It was alleged that though Khuba has only one valid license from the Mines and Geology Department (MGD) for building stone quarrying in two acres bearing Survey No. 24/4 for five years from July 19, 2014, to July 18, 2019.
Initially, Khuba paid Rs 7.17 lakh royalty for 11,950 MT of stone. Later, he was directed to pay a Rs 37.89 lakh penalty and Rs 22,000 dead rent for 12,380 MT. For the year 2023-24, the Deputy Director of MGD directed Khuba to pay in all Rs 82.04 lakh, including royalty due, fixed rent and interest.
In view of the complaint, the joint survey of the lands bearing Survey Nos. 24/2. 24/4 and 24/5 in Wacha village, where the building stone quarrying was done. The survey conducted by the Assistant Director of Land Records and the Deputy Director of the MGD disclosed that Khuba, who owned the license No.431, allegedly indulged in illegal building stone quarrying in lands bearing Sy.Nos. 24/4. 24/5. 24/3. 24/7. 24/8. 24/10. 24/2 and 23/1 and transported the same. These areas were outside his leased area.
Considering it a blatant violation of Karnataka Minor Mineral Concession Rules 1994 and Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, the MGD imposed a five times penalty of Rs 25.29 crore, assessing the royalty and dead rent, by way of a communication dated April 18, 2024, for illegal stone quarrying 7,19,691 MTs in 20,024 sqmtrs and asked Khuba to pay it.
However, Khuba did not pay for it. Therefore, MGD issued a notice to him on April 18, 2024, December 31, 2024, and also again on January 24, 2025, to pay the dues, including the penalty to the government, but all went in vain. Therefore, as he failed to pay the penalty of Rs 25.29 crore as on February 12, 2025, a private complaint has been registered against Khuba before the Civil Judge and JMFC in Chittapur under Section 223 of BNSS.
In addition to this, the MGD wrote three letters dated April 3, May 14 and July 5, 2025, to the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Kalaburagi, requesting to recover the penalty from Khuba, treating it as arrears of land revenue as per Rule 19 of the Karnataka Minor Mineral Concession Rules 1994.
Then the DC, who presided over the District Task Force Committee meeting recently, directed the department to issue a final notice to Khuba to pay a penalty and write to the Assistant Commissioner to execute revenue recovery proceedings.
The DC has also written to the Tahsildar of Kalagi taluk on August 18 to recover the penalty, treating it as arrears of land revenue from Khuba and submit the report. In turn, the Tahsildar wrote to the Revenue Inspector to initiate action to recover the dues. Accordingly, a notice has been issued to Khuba for recovery.
Meanwhile, the MGD officials have given an undertaking before Upa Lokayukta Justice Veerappa that they will recover the penalty within three months and submit the compliance report, as he took them to task for delaying to recover of the penalty, sources told TNIE.
