Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner M.P. Mullai Muhilan inspected the Ketthikal landslip site along National Highway 169 with scientists from the Geological Survey of India in Mangaluru on August 7.
| Photo Credit: File photo
The city police have filed a case against owners of private land and the Project Director, Mangaluru office, of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for allegedly cutting excess soil from Kettikal hillock, which recently witnessed landslips, posing a threat to the traffic movement on the busy Mangaluru-Moodibidri national highway and to houses atop the hillock.
The landslips also affected ongoging work of widening the Mangaluru-Karkala stretch of the National Highway 169.
The case was filed based on the complaint filed by the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC).
The Assistant Town Planning Officer of MCC A.B. Guruprasad filed the complaint against the land owner Nagaratna Shetty, her son Avinash Shetty, and the Project Director, at the Mangaluru Rural Police Station on August 14.
Mr. Guruprasad said in the complaint that Ms. Shetty and her son allowed the illegal extraction of soil from their land in Kettikal hillock through the NHAI Project Director. It has posed a threat to the wet well being constructed by the MCC on the top portion of the hillock. The MCC issued notices to the three on May 7 and subsequently on June 14 to address the issue. But they failed to take any action, the complaint said.
The Mangaluru Rural police registered the complaint under Sections 431 (mischief by injury to public road) and 432 (mischief by causing inundation or obstruction to public drainage attended with damage) of the Indian Penal Code.
Private complaint
Meanwhile, the Mines and Geology Department on July 6 filed a private complaint before the 3rd Judicial Magistrate First Class Court against Ms. Shetty and Annabathulla Prasad Rao, a representative of the DBL firm, which was assigned to remove the soil from the hillock by the NHAI. The two were accused of offence punishable under Section 22 of Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act.
In the order passed on July 8, the Magistrate said as per Section 223 of Bharatiya Nagarika Suraksha Sanhita, Magistrate cannot take cognisance of an offence without giving accused an opportunity to be heard. The case was posted to September 4 for appearance of the accused.
In a statement on Thursday, August 15, Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada M.P. Mullai Muhilan, who heads a government committee to inquire into cutting excess soil from the hillock, said excess soil was removed from the hillock between 2018 and 2022 and pictures on the same were given by NHAI and Mines and Geology Department and also by Geological Society of India (GSI). The NHAI has provided a video taken in December 2022 in this connection.
Mr. Muhilan said stakeholder departments, NHAI, DBL, and land owners have submitted their statements and documents. Police Commissioner Anupam Agrawal has asked Assistant Commissioner of Police (Central) Pratap Singh Thorat to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the matter. Based on the report, necessary penal action and disciplinary action will be initiated.
The Deputy Commissioner further said experts from the National Institute of Technology — Karnataka (NIT-K) assigned by the MCC, from the GSI assigned by the district administration, and from IIT Mumbai assigned by the NHAI have already collected information about seepage of water, nature of soil and other technical information related to Kettikal hillock. Further action, on permanent solutions to landslips, will be taken based on the reports by experts. Temporary measures have been taken to prevent further landslips in the area, Mr. Muhilan said.
