Illegal mining: Congress-BJP in tussle over Lok Ayukta's report

Congress and BJP were today engaged in a slugfest in the wake of the Karnataka Lok Ayukta Santosh Hegde indicting Karnataka Chief Minister S Yeddyurappa and his ministerial colleagues in the illegal mining scam and demands for his resignation getting louder.

While the ruling party alleged the involvememt of BJP's central leadership in illegal mining in Karnataka and demanded the chief minister's resignation, the opposition party hit back, saying the Congress should first take action against those named in the Shunglu Committee and Delhi Lok Ayukta's report.

"Entire Karnataka government and the top leadership of the BJP is involved in illegal mining," party spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said, adding that the chief minister should immediately resign from his post.

Reacting to it, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, "The Shunglu Committee had indicted the Sheila Dikshit government in the Commonwealth Games and the Delhi Lok Ayukta had recommended to the president that action should be taken against her minister Rajkumar Chauhan in the Tivoli Garden case. Nothing has been done in these two cases. Congress should first respond to this."

The Congress spokesperson, however, sought to make a distinction between the reports by Karnataka and Delhi Lok Ayuktas saying "it is a matter of debate as to what is the jurisdiction of a Lok Ayukta. Whether a Lok Ayukta can comment on the promise of a political leader made in its  election manifesto or the people."

When told that the report even mentions the name of a Congress MP Anil Lad, Ahmed said, "Law will take its own course. Congress has always taken action in corruption issues. But he is only an MP, whereas chief minister and ministers of the state government have been indicted in the report. They should resign first."

On BJP's contention that it was too early to react and that it would wait for the Lok Ayukta's report to be made public, the Congress spokesperson said the opposition party had made a hue and cry over the CAG report even before it was tabled in Parliament.

Repeatedly asked about Congress stand on its MP's name figuring in the report, Ahmed said, "Whatever action is necessary the party will do the needful after the report comes."

Daring the BJP to remove Yeddyurappa, he alleged that while one section of the central leadership of the opposition party was patronising Yeddyurappa, the other had given his blessings to Reddy brothers.

In a strong indictment of Yeddyurappa, Karnataka Lok Ayukta Justice Santosh N Hegde today said he has given "substantive" and "voluminous" evidence against him, in the illegal mining scam which has cost the state exchequer Rs1,800 crore in a period of 14 months.

Terming the scam as a "huge racket", Hegde said, "In the time period of 14 months, it is more than Rs1,800 crore. The time period is between March 2009 to May 2010. It is loss to the state exchequer".

Report has given substantive evidence whether it's the chief minister, ministers and miners. "It's a voluminous evidence", he said.