Daijiworld Media Network - Moodbidri (SP)
Moodbidri, Mar 17: Officials of the department of geology raided a hillock in Sampige, Puthige village near here where laterite stone mining was being carried out illegally. For facilitating the mining, the entire hillock had also been torched by the miscreants, the officials said.
As the miners fled from the scene, the officials confiscated machinery and other implements used for mining.
Allegedly, Vasanth Kotian, a local, with the support of some local people, was undertaking mining. The police and geology department had received complaints about this. The revenue and mining officials who went to the spot took away the machinery after finding that the people who were undertaking mining had run away. The locals said that the miners had torched the hillock so as to clear the thorns and bushes covering the hillock to facilitate mining activity.