Lakhs of tonnes of iron ore mined in Bellary, bordering Andhra Pradesh close to the eastern seaboard of peninsular India wind their way — through at least a dozen check posts — to the Belekeri port on the western seaboard each day. Each day, check post registers typically record some 200 trucks pass through them. In reality, on most days, an average of 4,000 trucks pass. They have been doing so for years.
Does it need a CBI inquiry to nail the culprits of illegal mining and exports? Will the four-day-long dharna inside the Karnataka Assembly put a stop to a practice that has been going on for years, under the nose of the government? Will cut-throat political battles between Congress and BJP at the very top levels of the state and the nation stop the looting of the country’s mineral wealth?
From conversations with top investigators in the city, Deccan Chronicle, for the first time, exposes how iron ore moves from Bellary to Belekeri, unaccounted for, waved through by check post officials on the strength of just three pieces of paper issued by government departments, often themselves forgeries or mere photocopies of authentic permits. Recall that one of the incriminating evidences gathered by sleuths in the Lokayukta probe of illegal mining was a gunnysack full of these ‘permits’. For a racket that causes the state losses in the thousands of crores each year, it’s a deceptively simple scheme that is in operation.
“The trucks that carry iron ore from the mines carry three documents — a transport permit issued by the Mines and Geology department; the way permit, also called Form 31, issued by the forest department; and a trip sheet issued by the mining company, or lessee”, explained a senior Lokayukta official. How 4,000 trucks transform into a mere 200 trucks is not a mystery actually. The Mines and Geology department issues its permit in ‘bulk’. In fact, it has come to be called ‘bulk permit’. What it means is that several trucks can make multiple trips — over a period of 30 days — until they transport the whole quantity of ore mentioned in the permit.
For minerals mined from forest areas, the forest department issues its permit on Form 31. In practice, this too is issued in bulk. As the Lokayukta report on illegal mining notes, officials hand out signed and sealed booklets containing 50-100 permits at a time, and in advance of the actual movement of ore. And they leave leave all the columns blank. The name of the mining lessee is not mentioned, the quantity of mineral to be transported is not mentioned, not even the vehicle number of the truck that the permit is meant for is mentioned. All of these details are filled in by the mining companies and their transporters as they see fit!
No records are kept of either of the permits issued in bulk the way a bank would keep record of the cheque book it issues or the way the RBI keeps track of the currency number for every currency note it lets out into the economy.
Then, of course, there is the trip sheet. What do you expect? When government documents can be falsified, what can be done with the trip sheet which is issued by the lessee himself. Quite simply, the quantity of ore mentioned in the trip sheet is never the quantity that’s actually being transported. In fact, the practice has become so degraded that some trucks don’t even carry the trip sheet. They know they can pass through without one.
“The bulk permits can be used an infinite number of times — simply paste a photocopy of one such permit on the windscreen of the truck and the check post officials will flag you off. There are no records to reconcile numbers or details mentioned in the paper with what’s happening on the ground”, the Lokayukta official said.
And so, lakhs of tonnes of precious ore moves from one end of Karnataka to the other, and thence to markets overseas, especially China, passing through transport check posts, forest check posts, commercial tax and RTO, with none batting an eyelid at the sham of it all. The Lokayukta report on illegal mining shows the extent of fraud and loss the state suffers each day.
In one case study at Kumaraswamy Forest Block, the report notes, 408 truck trips through a check post caused the state a loss of Rs 40 lakh. But that was just legal ore transport. Far more trucks passed through the same check post that day carrying ore illegally. And this happens day after day across the length of three national highways out of Bellary and Hospet — NH 17, 63 and 48.
All the uproar over illegal mining notwithstanding, the trucks continue to do their job. Successive governments have not moved an inch to curtail. It’s not so difficult to do, points out the Lokayukta official.
“You need just three well-implemented measures to stop illegal iron ore transport. One, the practice of letting trucks pass with just a photocopy of a permit should stop. Two, well-equipped check points must be established where each truck can be recorded and electronically weighed just before they enter the stock yards, be it at railway stations or the Mangalore, Karwar or Belekeri ports. Three, punishment for illegal acts must be made stringent. The present system of compounding of offences encourages offenders and corrupt officials to indulge in all sorts of illegal actions because, at the end of it all, the maximum compounding fee is only Rs 25,000,” the Lokayukta official says.