A team of Survey of India led by Superintendent Surveyor Prem Kumar, along with the officials of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh governments, resumed the survey work for demarcation of the inter-State border in the Ballari Reserve Forest.
The demarcation exercise in this region rich in iron ore mineral wealth assumes significance. The Survey of India team and the officials of both the States began the survey and demarcation of 76 border stones in the first week of December last year as per a Supreme Court directive, but it was stalled for unknown reasons.
Later, the top revenue officials of both the States resolved all issues and the exercise resumed on Monday.
Supreme Court order
The work, however, seems to have slowed down on Tuesday due to the ill health of Survey of India official Prem Kumar.
All the stones have been fixed with the mutual agreement of the location. Now, the team is ascertaining the exact coordinates with the help of the Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS), which the officials said, is an enhancement to the Global Positioning System (GPS) that provides improved location accuracy, from the 15 metre in GPS up to around 10 cm.
The exercise is resultant of the order pronounced by a two-judge bench of Supreme Court comprising Justice Madan Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta, that heard an Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by of the Andhra Pradesh government against Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC).
Traverse Data map
Meanwhile, Ganesh, who holds a mining lease at Malapamgudi and Siddapuram in Andhra Pradesh and at Tumti in Karnataka, showed the tri-junction point of the three villages marked on a rock in August 2018 during the survey conducted by the Deepak Sharma Committee, which has not been taken into consideration now.
The border deviates by a large extent during the demarcation exercise, he says, demanding that the Traverse Data map be used for demarcating the boundary.
