Ballari district expects a major chunk of Rs 15,000 crore mining compensation fund, which could come at the expense of the new Vijayanagara district by the government as an award.
According to the official sources, the fund share could be 67% for Ballari and others for the Vijayanagara district largely because the reports tell that the ecological damage due to illegal mining indicated that it happened mostly in Sandur and other taluks coming under Ballari and not Vijayanagara.
Anirudh P Shravan says, “The government will retain the action plan for the development of undivided Ballari district till 2023-24. the dividing of funds will be looked into after the plan expires”.
Prabhash Chandra Ray, MD of KMERC said “The funds accrued in KMERC have been earmarked for taluks as per damages sustained due to mining. As a result, whether parts of erstwhile Ballari district get the majority of new Vijayanagara district gets more is immaterial. We’ll provide funds as per the action plan”.
As per the revised plan, Ballai will get Rs 8,968 crores and Vijayanagara will get Rs 4,415 crores. The government may divide District mineral funds in the same ratio, with Ballari getting Rs 670 crores and Vijayanagara Rs 330 crores.
At a recent meeting of the Vijayanagar district formation, the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the current plan under Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration Corporation (KMERC) and District Mineral Fund (DMF) will continue for the next two fiscals. Anticipating trouble, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai pushed the division of funds till 2023-24.
The new fund share might boost the development of Ballari, which lost revenue tourism from Hampi to Vijayanagara. “Based on all the assessment, It has been decided that Vijaynagara will get lesser share of the funds”, said an official.
