JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Assembly on Thursday witnessed noisy scenes over illegal mining activities in various areas of the State. The House was adjourned for an hour after the agitated Opposition members stepped into the well shouting slogans and demanding setting up an Assembly committee to look into allegations of corruption and illegal mining which was, however, not conceded by the Government.

ADITI PHADNIS

Last week, the Supreme Court asked Gali Janardhana and Gali Karunakara Reddy, brothers, ministers of tourism and infrastructure and revenue respectively in the Karnataka government and owners of the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), to stop iron ore mining on the Andhra Pradesh-Karnataka border.

For decades, villages in interior Goa have paid the price of mining operations. Despite what the industry says, villagers have felt the pinch from air and water pollution, the loss of groundwater, the death of agriculture fields, and much more. Only in recent years has the campaign against mining pollution picked up.

India needs a national mining regulator

Karwar: A team of forest officials swooped down on the Belekeri port on Monday evening and seized five lakh tonnes of iron ore worth Rs. 150 crore, Forest Department sources said.

Fake passes of the Forest Department were used to transport the ore from Bellary district to the Belekeri and Karwar ports.

ANANTAPUR: The Obulapuram Mining Corporation, owned by Karnataka Ministers G. Janardhan Reddy and G. Karunakara Reddy, has suspended mining operations and iron-ore transportation at Obulapuram in Anantapur district in the wake of the Supreme Court's Monday order, staying all mining-related work.

New Delhi: In a setback to the Reddy brothers of Karnataka, the Supreme Court on Monday stayed all further mining activities by the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) in Andhra Pradesh.

Leader of the Opposition Manohar Parrikar once again raised the issue of illegal mining in the House today indicating that the State government is not serious enough to put an end to the illegality.

Hyderabad/ANANTAPUR, March 22: The IFS officer Mr Kallol Biswas, who was involved in the Obulapuram Mining Corporation (OMC) mining controversy in Anantapur, was transferred and posted to Warangal as forest geneticist.

Mr Biswas, a 1991-batch IFS official, was the deputy conservator of forests when the controversy over OMC occurred.