With the Lokayukta’s report on illegal mining in the state set to be submitted in three days, Belekeri port in Ankola taluk, Uttara Kannada district, is set to hog public attention.
With the lok ayukta’s report on illegal mining in the state set to be submitted in three days, Belekeri port in Ankola taluk, Uttara Kannada district, is set to hog public attention.
It was in Belekeri that financial impropriety by mining companies was first unearthed by the Lokayukta in February 2010.
It was here that the lok ayukta police got conclusive evidence of mining companies cheating the government through fake records and false certificates.
A small posse of lok ayukta police from Udupi entered Belekeri port on February 20, 2010, posing as tourists. They were dressed casually, in T-shirts and jeans, and carried cameras with them.
“For some reason, port officials were secretive. Our sources in Belekeri town told us that something was fishy, but we had no clue of the enormity of the irregularities until we entered the port,” remembers DySP, lok ayukta, Udupi, Prabhudev Mane, who was among the ‘tourists’ who visited the port on February 20, 2010.
The lok ayukta police seized 45 bags of forged documents, undervalued receipts and two computers with hard discs full of contradictory documents.
These served as the first, most massive consignment of evidence that would go into the probe on the illegal export of iron ore.
Acting to save their own skin, politicians sacrificed two officials.
Mahesh Biliya, an official of the ports department, and R Gokul, a forest official, were harassed. Both suffered constant heckling at the hands of their superiors, on intimidation from politicians involved in the mining business.
After a year of investigation, the lok ayukta had conclusive evidence of irregularities taking place in the whole host of operations — from mining in forest areas, to loading, transportation and record keeping of the iron ore.
“Every truck carried at least 10 tonnes of extra load of iron and manganese ore for five years. There were 2,000 such trucks plying each day. Receipts showed the wrong volume of ore,” an official said.
When the lok ayukta sleuths undertook an investigation, they found that the stockpile of manganese and iron ore handled at Belekeri port showed 40% higher volume than in the receipts and other papers, revealed a port official.
This fact was corroborated by sources at New Mangalore Port.
Another discrepancy was noticed by investigators. While 80% of the load that came to Belekeri had been licenced by the Andhra Pradesh government, it was loaded at Bellary, Hospet and Sandhur.
Udupi lok ayukta officials gathered documentary evidence of this.
A second consignment went missing after March. Seven mounds of 65-grade ore, considered high quality, mysteriously vanished. It was replaced by ore of low quality before the port closed in June 2010, ahead of the monsoon.
The mystery of the replaced ore has not been solved. “It could not have been possible for anybody to pull this complex job without political and bureaucratic help. At Belekeri, however, such hanky-panky was routine,” says a social activist from Ankola, BV Pai.
The police suspect that the ore was stolen away to Pakistan.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}