Bengaluru, Jul 27 (IANS): Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday instructed to prioritise the effective implementation of comprehensive Development Plan for Mining Sectors.

The Chief Minister has also directed the Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration Corporation to amend the byelaws of the Corporation to make the Chief Minister the Chairman of the Governing Body to enable it to effectively implement the action plan of the Comprehensive Development Plan for Mining Impact Zones (CEPMIZ) in mine-affected districts as approved by the Supreme Court.

He inspected the functioning of the Karnataka Mining Environment Restoration Corporation. 466 villages of 4 districts that is Bellary, Vijayanagar, Chitradurga and Tumkur have been declared mine-affected in the State.

The Supreme Court has sanctioned and approved an action plan with estimated cost of Rs 24,996.71 crore for the development of these villages.

As per the order of the Supreme Court, Justice Sudarshan Reddy, retired judge of Supreme Court has been appointed as the supervising authority to oversee the approval and implementation of the projects. The authority has so far spent a total of Rs 7634.96 crore in 4 districts. 317 proposals are approved.

In order to quickly prepare the rest of the proposals and get approvals, the CM directed to set up an engineering cell in these four districts and prepare action plan swiftly under the guidance of the District in-charge minister and Deputy Commissioner.

The Chief Minister pointed out that there is ample opportunity to develop the mine-affected villages by utilizing this project and directed the officials to maintain the quality of the works.

Forest Minister Ishwara Khandre, Horticulture and Mines and Geology Minister S.S. Mallikarjun, Chief Minister's political secretaries Dr. K. Govindaraju and Naseer Ahmed, Additional Chief Secretary to CM Dr. Rajneesh Goel, ACS to Government and Development Commissioner E V. Ramana Reddy and other senior officers were present in the meeting.