Karnataka, July 13: Karnataka Assembly has been witnessing high drama over the last few days, opposition Congress and JDS MLAs and MLCs spent the entire night in the Karnataka Assembly, seeking to mount pressure on the Yeddyurappa government to order a CBI inquiry into it.
Claiming that over three crore iron ore tons worth over Rs 12,000 crore was illegally shifted out of the country since 2003, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said he will quit if he failed to put an end to plundering of the natural resources in the state.
He was replying to a lengthy discussion in the Legislative Council on the issue of resignation (and subsequent withdrawal) of Karnataka Lokayukta Santhosh Hegde and illegal mining.
“In 2009-10 alone, about 71 lakh tons of iron ore were illegally shipped out of Karnataka,” he said.After the helmet protest yesterday, MLAs and MLCs slept in the Assembly last night. “This is a thick-skinned Government. The Yeddyurappa government is involved in the illegal mining”, leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah said as he came out of the ‘Vidhan Soudha’ for a morning stroll. Claiming that leaders of different political parties were directly or indirectly involved in illegal mining, he said only Centre could curb the menace through special legislation and appealed Opposition leaders to join a delegation to meet the prime minister on the issue.
The Assembly has been rocked over the issue of illegal mining in the State for the past few days.Opposition MLAs came to the Assembly yesterday wearing
helmets, saying they had been threatened by the BJP’s legislators.
CBI inquiry
Both Congress and JDS have insisted that nothing short of a CBI inquiry would bring out the truth on illegal mining, as it involved inter-state and international operations in view of large-scale iron ore export. Lok Ayukta or CID is ill-equipped to probe a scam of such magnitude, Siddaramaiah said. The Opposition leader demanded investigation into the scam, including that which took place during the tenure of earlier governments by CBI. The Congress has termed illegal mining as the “scam of the century”.
Measure taken against illegal mining:
Listing various measures he had taken against illegal mining, Yeddyurappa said his government had not granted any fresh licence and made it a policy to allow mining only to those units which were in the nature of value addition. Strongly refuting charges of the Opposition that he was helpless in taking strong measures to stop illegal mining, he assured the House that he would rather chose to quit the office if he feels weak to take action against the menace and go before the people seeking fresh mandate.
“I never came under any pressure from any organisation or any individuals in taking action against the illegal mining,” an emotionally choked Yeddyurappa said.
—Agencies