Work begins in demarcation of inter-State boundary

Team Udayavani, May 30, 2018, 12:28 PM IST

Ballari: Officials of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and from the Survey of India have arrived at Ballari to demarcate the inter-State boundary that passes through the Ballari Reserve Forest. On Tuesday, the officials had a meeting here and went on a field visit to Belagal, H. Siddapur and Tumti to survey the boundary. They will continue the inspection of the existing boundary stones and fix it in a few days.

The work on the demarcation of the boundary has been pending for a long time. Earlier, when efforts were carried out in this regard, it had to be stopped due to the directions of the Supreme Court. Though the reason for this halt is known only to the officials, the demarcation to be done now is also an order from the apex court. On the other hand, large scale mining in the Bellary forest area also resulted in the destruction of some of the boundary pillars.

A survey of mining lease boundary of a few mines at Tumti and Vittalapuram in Sandur taluk have been kept pending due to the demarcation. One such mine is owned by Tapal Ganesh and his brothers. Ganesh filed an interlocutory application in the Supreme Court seeking an order for early demarcation of the inter-State boundary so that they could begin the process of renewing the lease agreement and getting clearances.

Meanwhile, Obulapuram Mining company (OMC), owned by former Minister G. Janardhan Reddy, is accused of destroying the tri-junction point between Tumti, Vittalpur and Malapanagudi. Reddy is also charged with large scale illegal mining and plundering natural mineral resources in the State. The Lokayukta report on illegal mining has revealed that tonnes of iron ore were looted from the site. The Central Bureau of Investigation has also proved this in its probe in the illegal mining case by OMC.