The Nagarika Seva Trust (NST), mines, minerals and People (mm&P) and INCERT have demanded that the State government should not permit the continuation of mining in Kudremukh under any circumstances. Addressing a press conference here on Saturday, representatives of the three organisations took serious exception to the lapses on the part of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), the State government and the Central government. The organisations have demanded the withdrawal of the “biased and faulty” Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) by NEERI and action against the guilty who have manipulated the report for vested interests. The have taken serious exception to the reluctance of the department of forest ecology and environment (DFEE), Government of India, in disclosing the provision of law under which the 5105 hectares has been excluded from the final notification of the proposed Kudremukh National Park. Mr Ranjan Rao Yerdoor of the Nagarika Seva Trust trained his guns on NEERI for committing serious errors and omissions in the EIA. He said the nature of errors have raised serious doubts over the credibility of a national and scientific organisation like NEERI. “Despite being apprised about the errors through a letter dated October 3, 2001, till date, neither NEERI nor the secretary, department of scientific and industrial research, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, have even bothered to reply”, he said. Enumerating the other violations on the part of the KIOCL, Mr Yerdoor said the company did not take permission as required under Sec 4 (1) of the Karnataka Irrigation Act, 1965, to build the Lakhya dam and the two smaller dams they have constructed. The KIOCL has also not paid water cess to the government as required under section 3c-2 of Karnataka Irrigation Act (Levy of Betterment contribution) Act, 1957. The other demands include a clarification by the irrigation department on the true position regarding the violations of law by KIOCL and initiation of remedial action including collection of dues and penalties, assurance by the government that they were committed to citizen’s right to information and to transparent and clean governance by making public, the assistant commissioners’ reports as well as the provision of law under which they have excluded 5105 hectares of land from the proposed Kudremukh National Park.

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