The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) constituted by the Supreme Court to look into illegal mining, has shot down NGO, Samaj Parivartan Samudaya's plea to ban mining in the mineral rich forests of Sandur taluk in Bellary district. “The CEC does not agree with the contention of the petitioner that none of the category A mining leases located in the forest areas particularly in Sandur taluka, should be allowed,” CEC member secretary, M K Jiwrajka said in a report submitted to the apex court on August 29.
Convenor of the NGO, S R Hiremath has argued that with the regulating agencies of both the state and Union governments having failed to protect the environment and people of Sandur, no mining should be permitted in the area, but the CEC didn't think he had a real case. It once again recommended setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for undertaking social, environmental and infrastructure developmental work in the mining impact zone using funds from the Monitoring Committee authorised to penalise defaulting mining firms and auctioning cancelled mining leases in global bidding.