The Hindu : 2 ministers grabbing govt. land: JD(S)

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 11, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

2 ministers grabbing govt. land: JD(S)

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore May 10. H.D.Kumaraswamy, former MP and senior leader of the JD(S), has demanded the resignation of the Minister for Urban Development, D.K.Shivakumar, and the Minister for Mines and Geology, V.Muniyappa, for "grabbing" government property in Sathanur Assembly Constituency and "attempting to part with forest land" in various parts of the State.

Mr. Kumaraswamy told presspersons here today that the Urban Development Minister, with the tacit support of Mr. Muniyappa, had taken over, "benami", a vast property allotted to Mysore Minerals Ltd. for quarrying. It was a fit case for a CBI inquiry or at least a CoD probe. "If action is not taken, we will have no other choice but to file a criminal case against the two ministers," he said. C.Chennigappa and H.C.Balakrishna, MLAs, and the MLC, Puttanna, were present.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said the two ministers should resign or else the Chief Minister, S.M.Krishna, should dismiss them. Apparently buoyed by successfully taking over the property of Mysore Minerals, the two ministers were now attempting to sell reserve forest land in 21 regions of the State. A gazette notification was issued in this connection and the two had "clandestinely" offered the properties to a few persons who were close to them, he alleged. Some of the forest land was in areas around Hospet, Chamarajanagar, Kollegal, and Channapatna. The former MP said: "The State Government passed two notifications in quick succession in March and April last to grant approval for quarries on forest land. It first brought about an amendment to the Minor Minerals Concession Rules to permit quarrying in forest land and followed it up inviting applications for quarrying on 251 acres. The estimated value of the granite deposits in the notified forest land is Rs. 550 crore," he said.

Referring to the land allotted to Mysore Minerals in Bangalore Rural District, he said the two ministers and the brother of one of the ministers had taken over property spread over 110 acres in the name of D.C.Ramesh, gram panchayat member. Later, quarrying for pink granite at the place began and Mysore Minerals employees were left with no job. "We still cannot comprehend as to how the Chief Minister was kept in the dark."

He said environmentalists in the State should take steps to protect the precious forest wealth. Further, the Floor Leader of the JD(U) in the Legislative Assembly, P.G.R.Sindhia, who represented Kanakapura, should take the lead in preventing the plunder. Referring to the demand made by some leaders of the AIJD on Friday that the former prime minister, H.D.Deve Gowda, should retire from politics and offer an unconditional apology to Balagangadharanath Swami of Adichunchanagiri Math, he said retiring from a politics was a personal matter and it was for Mr. Deve Gowda to decide.

On the charges levelled against the former prime minister by two former ministers now associated with the AIJD, K.N.Nage Gowda and H.N.Nanje Gowda, he said: "It is not worth replying to them. Let us first of all know in which party they are at present or whether they are agents of the Congress."

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