Upalokayukta B. Veerappa inspecting illegal gravel mining at a private land at Kallahalli in Hosapete taluk of Vijayanagara district on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
After receiving definite information about illegal gravel mining at a private land at Kallahalli in Hosapete taluk of Vijayanagara district, Upalokayukta B. Veerappa paid a surprise visit to the property on Saturday and reprimanded the officials for allowing it. The local village officer and Deputy Director of Mines and Geology were at the receiving end.
“I found that gravel is illegally mined and transported from a 4.81 acres of private land belonging to Vali Naik at Kallahalli village in Vijayanagara district. Necessary permission was not obtained from the departments concerned. I found that the land was dug for more than 25 feet to extract the gravel. It is a clear violation of the law,” Mr. Veerappa said after visiting the site.
When the village officer said that he had informed about the illegal gravel mining to the previous tahsildar and he did not take any action, Mr. Veerappa asked the officer whether he informed the current tahsildar. “Why didn’t you inform the present tahsildar? It appears that you too are involved in this illegal mining,” he said.
When the village officer said that he had also informed the Department of Mines and Geology about six months ago, Mr. Veerappa reprimanded the government geologist Kiran and Deputy Director of Mines and Geology Kirthi Kumar for not taking any action.
“Government servants are duty-bound to safeguard public property and maintain the law of the land. Are you going to spoil the future of our young generations? If you allow mining on the private land, the mining will be extended to nearby forest land. I got the information that the gravel mined here is transported to Hosapete city. I sensed that this illegal mining is going on systematically,” Mr. Veerappa said.
He also directed officials from the Revenue and Mines, and Geology departments to take immediate action against illegal mining under various Acts.
“Register a complaint immediately and act upon it. Seize all these vehicles and machines used for illegal mining,” he told the officers.
Mr. Veerappa also visited the solid waste management processing unit at Sanklapur village near Hosapete and took stock of the segregation of wet and dry waste in the unit.
The officials told him that 130 tonnes of solid waste generated in Hosapete city was transported to the unit for segregation. When Mr. Veerappa pointed to the heap of unsegregated waste in the unit, Municipal Commissioner Manohar said that the entire solid waste would be segregated and disposed of within six months.
Mr. Veerappa directed the officials to ensure that vegetables and food grains grown using the compost processed from the city’s solid waste would of the standard consumable quality.
“You need to test the vegetables cultivated using the compost prepared from the city’s solid waste and ensure the quality is up to the expected standard,” he said.
Published – March 15, 2025 11:34 pm IST