Illegal mining of limestone: Hyderabad HC shocked at scale of loot
Examining the case of alleged illegal excavation of more than 20 lakh metric tonnes of limestone, the bench of Chief Justice T B Radhakrishnan and Justice V Ramasubramanian expressed shock at the magnitude and scale of the loot of public wealth while hearing a public interest petition filed by T G V Krishna Reddy of Gadevaripalli in Karampudi Mandal of Guntur district. "This is a clear case of corruption where the illegal miners have greased the palms of corrupt officials. We want to see the greased palms," the bench said. Petitioner's counsel N Sumanth told the bench that what is more pathetic is the response of the state despite the huge number of complaints on the large-scale illegal mining, blasts of which are endangering the lives of the people in neighboring villages. "When we approached the Lokayukta, he ordered a probe by his investigations director. He concluded that local TDP MLA of Gurajala constituency Yerapathineni Srinivasa Rao is behind illegal mining," Sumanth said. Following a PIL filed by one Kundurthy Guravachary, the HC in March 2016 directed the state to stop illegal mining and also recover the lost wealth from looters. "However, the officials did not implement this order. The petitioner in that case was beaten black and blue and was implicated in false cases just to ensure he is kept away from pursuing this loot case," the petitioner in the current case said and urged the court to direct the state to comply with that order at least now and also sought an independent probe.
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