KJP floor leader B S Yeddyurappa has urged the state government to institute a commission of inquiry into all the mining licences issued from 1999 till date.
If accepted, this would include the tenures of S M Krishna, N Dharam Singh, H D Kumaraswamy, Yeddyurappa, D V Sadananda Gowda, Jagadish Shettar and Siddaramaiah as chief ministers.
The 945-page report on illegal mining in Karnataka submitted by then Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde in July 2011 only covered the period from 2006 to 2010. Yeddyurappa told the Legislative Assembly: “In my tenure just three mining licences were issued. As many as was 16 licenses during the tenure of Krishna, 20 by Dharam Singh and 22 by Kumaraswamy. Let there be a commission of inquiry looking into all these instances.”
Yeddyurappa rued that BJP leaders went by Justice Hegde’s report and made him resign from the CM’s post. Yeddyurappa, narrating his “karma kathe” (tale of woe) as he called it, said BJP leaders who were with him while in power, betrayed him later.
“Every BJP leader held me responsible for illegal mining, denotification, allotment of G category sites and allotment of industrial land by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board. In fact, all the previous CMs have allotted sites under ‘G’ category and denotifed land. I allotted sites to all siteless legislators and MPs irrespective of political parties. In the process, those who owned houses and sites also got sites. The BJP leaders raised a hue and cry when a site was allotted to my son MP B Y Raghavendra which was ultimately surrendered to BDA,’’ he outlined.
Citing his own example, Yeddyurappa advised Siddaramaiah to be careful about the people surrounding him and said the Congress high command may not allow him to continue after Lok Sabha polls.
“Maybe that is why you were in a great hurry to announce new programmes such as rice at `1 per kg. Personally, I want you to complete full five years. But a few legislators have not taken oath till date following unhappiness over the Cabinet expansion. Some say T B Jayachandra should get a better portfolio, and former speaker Rameshkumar should be made a minister. All these are not good signs,” he said.