The ‘mine fire’ shows no signs of abating in the state as chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, on Friday, unleashed a strong counter-attack on the Congress by accusing the Union government of colluding with the mining lobby.
Yeddyurappa hit back at the Congress as he threatened to expose the involvement of several Congress leaders, including several ministers at the Centre and other states, in illegal mining. “Grease the palms of people at the Centre and you will get a mining licence.
The Union government is hand in glove with those engaged in illegal mining. I will expose all this if the Centre refuses to ban the export of iron ore. I will meet the prime minister soon with more documents to convince him of the need to ban export of iron ore.
I will move the Supreme Court if needed, to ensure that the mineral resources of the country are not shipped out to fill the coffers of a few sharks in the mining business,” Yeddyurappa said.
However, he refused to divulge any names. A separate jail would have to be opened for these VIP inmates when the mining probe was completed and their involvement was exposed, he added. “I will provide all the documents to the Lokayukta and the court to bring them to book,” he said.
Seeking to drive home his point, Yeddyurappa cited the cases of state-owned Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Limited (VISL) whose application seeking licence for a captive iron ore mining was turned down and Kudremukh Iron Ore Limited which has been trying for an alternative captive mine after the closure of its mine in Chikmagalur district.
“These two companies have been denied licences because they cannot pay the kickbacks. I will take up the case of these two companies and try to get mining licences for them,” he said.
He said the stoppage of ore exports would encourage setting up of steel plants within the country that could provide employment for lakhs of poor people and improve the socio-economic condition of millions in the country.
One more Upalokayukta
Reiterating his commitment for a probe into the matter, the chief minister announced that one more Upalokayukta would be appointed within the next 15 days. The new appointee would exclusively assist Lokayukta justice N Santosh Hegde in the probe into illegal mining, said Yeddyurappa.
Denying the Congress charge that he had issued mining licences to 15 companies, Yeddyurappa said the proposals for issuing licences to these companies were sent by the previous government and his government was duty bound to issue the same after approval from the Centre. However, Yeddyurappa accepted that his government issued two licences to state-owned Hutti Gold Mines, and Susheelamma, which already had manganese mining lease.
