Granite stored in Karwar points to another major scam

KARWAR: The department of mines and geology (DMG) that is already under fire for its mishandling of the iron ore case, is again in soup for not keeping the documents of granite transported to and exported out of Karwar port.
When contacted, Jayappa, deputy director of DMG said the department had no data about the quantity of the granite brought to Karwar port and the quantity lying in different storing points in Karwar.He said from now on, the department would maintain the data. He said he had no idea whether the granite illegally quarried in other districts of the state was exported out of the country from Karwar port. He said it was the duty of the forest and transport department to maintain the data whether the granite was extracted from revenue, forest or patta lands.
But forest officials said they had no such documents and it was the duty of DMG to maintain the documents of passes and permits issued to transporters. Surendrappa, RTO, Karwar said that his department has no authority to check the passes and permits of the lorries carrying granites. He said the department had imposed fines on the overloaded granite lorries and in the last year, 321 cases were booked by the department and fine amounting to Rs 36,79,300 was collected. He said such lorries were let off only after they paid the fine.
Conservator of the port of Karwar said that the port department does not maintain the record of the granite stored in district. He said only the data of exported quantity is available. During the year 2009-10, 3,31,325 MT and during 2010-11, 1,10,360 MT granite was exported from the Karwar port he said.
A forest official on condition of anonymity said, like iron ore, huge quantity of granite was brought to Karwar from illegal quarries of different districts of Karnataka. And a major part of this was exported. There is huge difference between the passes issued by the forest and the DMG and the also the quanitity of granite exported. "It is a big scam, but with everyone busy talking about illegal export of iron ore, nobody is concentrating on the multi-crores granite export scam," he said.