Excerpt from The Decan Herald
The State government on Monday told the High Court that it had cancelled all the sand mining leases in fishing territories and would not be giving out new licences.
The Court was hearing two separate petitions, in which the petitioners had contended that rampant sand mining in coastal areas was affecting the livelihood of fishermen and destroying the fragile biodiversity.
The State submitted that a new sand mining policy would come into effect in April 2011.
Under this, only the government, under the Public Works Department, would be authorised to conduct sand mining. To this submission, the court suggested that the State revert to its earlier policy.
The High Court has refused to stay proceedings against JD(S) MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan in a dacoity case.
The Court however directed the police not to take any action against Zameer as he had submitted that he would appear at the lower court on all the trial dates.
The Chamarajpet MLA had sought an interim order to stay all proceedings against him before the ACMM.
Meanwhile, the complainant in the dacoity case, Ziyaulla Khan Gori, has filed an application stating that he had not named Zameer in his complaint and his inclusion in the list of 13 was politically motivated.
