Raising objections once again to the way that the Survey of India (SoI) was demarcating the Karnataka – Andhra Pradesh border in Ballari district following the Supreme Court directions, Tapal Ganesh, a miner and activist, alleged that the Central survey agency was deliberately considering the wrong border points to protect the illegal miners.

Addressing a media conference in Ballari on Tuesday, he specifically objected to SoI’s drone survey over Timmappana Gudda to identify the border points 63, 64, 65, 66 and 67 to demarcate the boundary line.

“Survey Points 63 and 64 are new tri-junctions erected along northern slopes valley of Survey No. 106 of Tumti. The original tri-junction rock mark made by the British administration on Timmappana Gudda hillock for demarcation was blasted and destroyed in the mining. Instead of taking it into consideration, the SoI team is, unfortunately, considering newly erected tri-junction points which come down about 400 meters down the valley towards Karnataka side at Survey Number 106 of Tumti. It has failed to go through the original map considering the contours, ridges, streams and boundaries of the cluster village. If the original tri-junction points made by the British rulers are replaced with the new tri-junction points, a considerable portion of Karnataka’s land would be become a part of Andhra Pradesh and help the illegal miners, who destroyed the original interstate boundary line to meet their ends, go scot-free,” Mr. Ganesh said.

Mr. Ganesh’s main contention was that the SoI team had taken the 1896 map as the base map, which, he claimed, did not have any survey measurement proceedings and not matching with the original village rock-marks made by the British administration.

Mr. Ganesh alleged that Gali Janardhan Reddy, who, he claimed, was the main culprit for the illegal mining and the resultant inter-state border destruction, had influenced the SoI survey team to ensure that the survey agency would give such a report that would be favourable to him and cover up his illegal mining. “The survey for demarcating the inter-state border in Ballari district is not being conducted as per SC uidelines. The way that the SoI is conducting the survey work for the last three months indicates that the survey agency is going to submit a report that would be favourable to Mr. Reddy and protect him from crimes of illegal mining and destruction of the border. Neither the State nor the Union government is interested in correcting the wrongdoings of SoI in Ballari,” he said.