Drone deployed for aerial surveillance over Baby Betta

Amid rising issues over unlawful quarrying, the authorities in Mandya district have deployed a drone over Baby Betta and its surrounding areas in Pandavapura taluk to test unlawful quarrying actions by way of aerial surveillance.

The Department of Mines and Geology, Mandya, deployed a drone for aerial surveillance after the Assistant Commissioner of Pandavapura taluk B.C. Shivanandamurthy issued orders earlier this week banning all kinds of mining and stone crushing actions in Baby Betta and its surrounding areas for the following two months.

“The Police Department has provided its drone to the Department of Mines and Geology to monitor illegal quarrying activities in Baby Betta and surrounding areas,” Superintendent of Mandya district police Parashurama K. advised The Puucho. The aerial surveillance will proceed until the ban is in power, he mentioned.

According to an order issued on January 25, the Assistant Commissioner of Pandavapura, who can also be the taluk Justice of the Peace, banned all kinds of mining and stone crushing actions in a number of villages in and round Baby Betta in Pandavapura until March 24, 2021.

Illegal quarrying right here had turn out to be a supply of main concern after the current blast of an explosive-laden truck in Shivamogga. Rampant mining actions within the space had additionally been blamed by the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) for the tremors skilled by the KRS dam close by. For, in September 2018, the seismic monitoring station at KRS had recorded two “signatures” coming from a radial distance of round 10.5 km, which is across the similar radial distance at which the quarrying space of Baby Betta is situated.

In the wake of the Shivamogga blast, varied organisations had known as for a halt to the quarrying actions within the ecologically delicate Baby Betta space, fearing a risk to the 80-year KRS reservoir, which is the lifeline of the individuals of a number of components of Karnataka and neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, Lokayukta P. Vishwanath Shetty has ordered Deputy Commissioner, Shivamogga district, to conduct an inquiry into unlawful mining within the district, steps taken to stop it and lapses thereof and submit a report in six weeks.

Mr. Shetty has mentioned in his order that an earlier report by the Mines and Geology Department on unlawful mining within the district confirmed the actual mine the place the blast occurred killing many was additionally booked and if mining operations had been stopped on the mine after the legal case, the accident might have been prevented. However, he mentioned he wouldn’t launch a probe into the incident because the State authorities had already ordered a probe, however would inquire into unlawful mining within the district and ordered the Deputy Commissioner to submit the investigation report.

Licence cancelled

Shivamogga Deputy Commissioner has cancelled the licence of S.S. Stone Crushers, situated at Kallganguru in Shivamogga taluk, the place a blast passed off claiming six lives on January 21.

Deputy Commissioner K.B. Shivakumar, who can also be chairman of the District Stone Crushers Licensing and Regulation Authority, has issued the order cancelling the licence. The cancellation order has been issued as per the Karnataka Stone Crushers Regulation Act 2011. The licence was issued on April 12, 2019. B.V. Sudhakar had the licence to arrange the stone crushing unit on 5 acres of land situated in survey quantity 2 of Kallganguru village.