Daijiworld Media Network – Karwar (SP)

Karwar, Apr 2: The coordination meeting of the officials of forest, mines and geology, port department and the exporters, held here on Thursday April 1, ended in chaos. At one stage, customs official, Panchaksharaiah, accused the journalists of being responsible for faulty reporting, duly claiming that this had created problems for the officials, and advised them to sweep the floor at the port.

The meeting was arranged in view of the arrival of chief forest conservator, Deepak Sharma and Rangaswamy, to verify the stock of iron ore worth several crores of rupees lying at Belekeri port in Ankola taluk near here, which had been recently confiscated.

The exporters tried to make the officials responsible for the imbroglio, saying that the stand taken by some officials to control illegal mining activities, had come as a stumbling block for even the genuine exporters. They accused the forest officials of confiscating the iron ore that was legally mined and transported.

The officials of various departments started to fight with other on the issue of fixing responsibility for the task, with each one of them saying that they were not responsible for verifying the iron ore stock coming to the port. The port officer, Capt C Swamy, said that it was the duty of the customs officials to decide about the exportability of the goods.  The customs official, Panchaksharaiah, said that the customs enters the scene only when one of the departments raises doubts about the legality of the items being exported. Exchange of allegations and counter allegations between the exporters and officials ensued thereafter.

After the above customs official turned his ire at the journalists, the journalists were engaged in a prolonged verbal duel with him. Panchaksharaiah, who tried to defend himself by saying that he did not mean it, walked out of the meeting thereafter.

The meeting ended without a decision. Deepak Sharma, who refused to brief the reporters, said that the government will take a final decision about exporting the confiscated iron ore.