A high-level meeting was held at Vidhana Soudha on Monday to finalize new rules for red stone mining in Dakshina Kannada and other coastal districts. The session was chaired by Legislative Assembly Speaker U.T. Khader and District In-charge Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, with Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda, Mines Minister S.S. Mallikarjun, Rural Development Minister Priyanka Kharge, and other ministers and MLAs from the coastal belt in attendance.
Officials from the Mines Department presented updates on earlier discussions to remove hurdles in red stone quarrying and outlined the steps for implementing revised guidelines. They informed that a draft Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is in progress to simplify the process for granting official permits, especially for non-commercial quarry operations.
Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao stressed that red stone is vital for construction works and instructed the Mines Department to make the permit-issuing process quicker and easier, ensuring approvals within a month. He emphasized providing necessary facilities to applicants without delay.
Speaker U.T. Khader called for corrective action in cases where drilling for construction and soil leveling causes issues. He also urged officials to consider reducing royalty rates and to ensure that mining permissions strictly follow legal provisions.
The meeting also saw participation from Uttara Kannada In-charge Minister Mankal Vaidya, Udupi In-charge Minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar, and senior officials, marking a step toward regulated and streamlined red stone mining in the coastal region.