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According to Additional Chief Secretary K. Jairaj, eleven departments, which have been brought under the Sakala programme, received more than eight lakh applications in a month. Of these applications, more than seven lakh have been disposed of before the due date.

Mr. Jairaj said that this accounted for 98 per cent of the cases being covered and hoped that the remaining would be disposed of within the stipulated time. Officials concerned would have to pay a fine every passing day until the application was disposed of, Mr. Jairaj added.

He said that the high-level official committee, headed by him, entrusted with the responsibility of preparing the Action Taken Report on the Lokayukta’s recommendations on illegal mining in the State, had yielded good results. Mr. Jairaj said that it led to ordering inter-departmental inquiries into the conduct of officers indicted in the report, creation of a special task force, changing the permit system in the Department of Mines and Geology and setting up way bridges and check-posts by the Forest Department.

Some officials indicted in the report had been kept under suspension and others were issued show-cause notices by the departments concerned, he said. Action would be taken against them after the receipt of their replies, he added.

The State Government, he said, had announced that it would make changes in the rules governing mining activity and a high-level committee, under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary S.V. Ranganath, had been set up to monitor its progress.

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