Yeddyurappa writes to PM seeking ban on export of iron ore

In an effort to tackle the mining mafia in Karnataka, chief minister BS Yeddyurappa has written to prime minister Manamohan Singh, urging the Centre to ban the export of iron ore. Yeddyurappa has also sought a meeting of chief ministers of mineral-rich states to discuss a ban on the unbridled export of minerals.

“Despite our best efforts, the pressure to export iron ore is relentless. Such unbridled exports of minerals from our country will only lead to loss of precious natural resources. At this rate, in a few years, our country will exhaust all its mineral resources.

Unless this is stopped, we’ll be doing a great disservice to future generations. There is an urgent need to put in place a comprehensive policy to ban the export of iron ore and to make it mandatory that iron ore and other such minerals are utilised for value addition within the country itself,” he said.

While explaining the measures taken by the state, he said Karnataka is the first state to introduce a value-addition policy and it has been well received by iron and steel companies. Also, the practice of issuing bulk permits, which are often misused by miners, has now been stopped, he said, adding: “Specific permits are being issued for each load and we have introduced bar-coding and hologram-based trip-sheets to improve consignment tracking. We have introduced integrated check-posts at several locations of the state to ensure better coordination of various departments like mining, forest, commercial taxes, transport and PWD,” he said in the letter.