Report sought on stone quarrying near KRS

R. Ashok, Revenue Minister and Mandya district in-charge, on Monday instructed officials of Department of Mines and Geology to submit a report within a month on the impact of stone extraction activities in the vicinity of Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) reservoir in the district.

The Minister was speaking at the review meeting of the Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) at the Mandya Zilla Panchayat auditorium here.

Farmers and various associations have been demanding a ban on stone extraction activities/use of explosives within a 20 km-radius of the reservoir. The government is committed to ban it, he said.

Rampant

There are over 80 stone quarrying units, a majority of them owned by politicians including relatives of Melkote MLA and former minister C.S. Puttaraju, in Srirangapatna and Pandavapura taluks. Most of the operators use high-intensity explosives to extract stones. This has been causing causing tremors and loud sounds near KRS.

The Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) had submitted a report to the district administration with suggestions to prevent the use of high-density explosive substances.

Indira Canteen

The food quality served in ‘Indira Canteens’, the ambitious project of the Siddaramaiah-led previous Congress government to provide subsidised food to the urban poor, was also discussed in the meeting.

Mr. Ashok said that the public had complained about the food quality to him and complaints were also heard in Bengaluru. The Minister instructed Suraj, Assistant Commissioner (Revenue, Mandya sub-division), to look into the issue and submit a report within a month regarding food quality maintained and submission of fake bills.

K. Suresh Gowda, Nagamangala MLA, objected to leasing out land belongings to the Horticulture Department to private persons to grow crops. Mr. Ashok instructed the officials to cancel the lease.

Former Ministers C.S. Puttaraju and D.C. Thammanna, MLAs K.C. Narayana Gowda, M. Srinivas, K. Suresh Gowda and K. Annadani, MLCs K.T. Srikante Gowda and Marithibbe Gowda, panchayat president Nagaratna, vice-president P.K. Gayatri, panchayat CEO K. Yalakki Gowda and Superintendent of Police K. Parashuram were present.