BANGALORE, July 24
Mining activities of Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited (KIOCL) will come to a grinding halt at Kudremukh in
Chikmagalur district from Tuesday morning 6 am onwards in the wake of Centre`s failure to give green signal to the State
government to extend the temporary lease period by one more year. The earlier extension given to the company in July
1999 expired today.
As per the mining laws the company was supposed to have received the mining extension for one more year, as the government was yet to consider its case for renewal of mining lease for a long term period of 20 years.
KIOCL Chairman S Murari told Deccan Herald that the company will be suspending all its activities at Kudremukh from tomorrow morning onwards. It would also stop the repair work of iron ore slurry pipeline at Nooral Bettu area.
The company was waiting for the clearance from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in extending the temporary lease period for one more year. At the time of going to the press the company in Bangalore had not received any official indication from the ministry in this regard.
Though the Karnataka government, being the rightful owner of the 4,605 hectares of the vast tracts of the rich mining area, had recommended to the Centre of its willingness to extend the lease by another year pending a host of other issues for granting a long-term lease of over 20 years, neither Union Minister for Environment and Forests T R Balu nor top officials in the ministry found time till late night for signing on the dotted line to give a lease of life for its own healthy and grown-up baby, which was made to wait the whole day with a bated breath!
This is not the first time the 2,400 employees of Kudremukh were put on tenterhooks till the last day of the lease period expiring as on the same day last year, the Centre as well as the State Government dilly-dallied for granting the one-year lease after the expiry of the 30-year mining lease given to the company way back in 1969.
LEAKAGE OF SLURRY PIPELINE: An exasperated KIOCL Chairman and Managing Director S Murari, who summoned media persons to his corporate office in Bangalore late in the afternoon to clarify the slurry leakage that brought the entire mining activity to a grinding halt for the next four weeks, causing environmental damage in the region, had no answer why the Environment Ministry was sitting ducks on the extension even on the last day of the earlier one-year extension expiring.
Admitting that the leakage of the iron ore slurry through its pipeline at Nooral Bettu area near Mullikar village would lead to a loss of US dollar 50,000 for the Rs 640 crore company during the current financial year (2000-01), Murari blamed the fury of the south-west monsoon for the landslides that caused the pipeline to break away.
Mr Murari, who visited the spot yesterday along with other directors of the company said that a contractor has been pressed for the work to do manual digging to locate the exact point of leakage, which is about 8 to 10 metres below the ground level. ''We are exploring the possibility of moving the earth moving equipments for early completion of repair work,`` he said.
He said there is no vegetation along the slurry pipeline alignment except for some small bushes and shrubs.
At the time of visit, the water in the streams are found to be very clear and flowing smoothly without any contamination, Mr Murari said adding that the company has submitted a report to the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board about the actions being taken by the company.