Vijayanagara, Ballari may see fight for mining funds

BENGALURU: Long after the historic Vijayanagara empire bit the dust and its ruins made Ballari district a world tourist destination, the farthest district in northeast Karnataka hit the headlines due to illegal mining.
However, stringent measures and hefty penalties on mining companies for compensating the loss to local topography and destruction of natural resources boosted its revenue over the past five years.
Now, as the 31st district of Karnataka, Vijayanagara, carved out of Ballari, may well walk away with the riches, leaving the old district with minimal resources and revenue stream.
As of 2021, the government had around Rs 16,000 crore under 12 heads of expenditure, including tourism, housing, environment, education, health, drinking water and sanitation, to be spent by the newly formed Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration Corporation (KMERC).
This apart, each year, undivided Ballari district generated Rs 500 crore in royalty on mining of major and minor minerals.
A big chunk of mining goes with Hospet taluk to the new district along with tourism hotspot Hampi.
According to mining department officials, apart from the KMERC funds, a considerable chunk of funds from District Mineral Foundation (DMF) will now go towards the new district based on continued mining in Hosapete circle.
However, Ballari City MLA Somashekar Reddy insists Ballari will not lose out on mining funds.
Ballari will have 80% of funds, says MLA
“They carved out Vijayanagara district and taken our jewel of Hampi, but we won’t allow mining funds to be disproportionately distributed. Ballari will have 80% of funds,” said Reddy.
Somashekar, the youngest of three Reddy siblings with middle brother Gali Janardhana Reddy accused of illegal mining and fighting legal battles even after 10 years, said six taluks under the new district will have to make do with 20% funds for development as he and legislators in five taluks under Ballari district will fight for it. According to government officials, minister Anand Singh raised concern at a recent meeting over division of mining funds. “We told him it’s most likely that one-third of funds available will go to Hospete,” an official said.
Meanwhile, KMERC managing director Prabash Chandra Ray said division of funds from the corpus will be based on talukwise damages that need to be compensated. “Creation of Vijayanagara district may not have much impact as each taluk is given funds required to compensate for illegal mining,” he said.