Quick to the defence of Information Minister Santosh Lad in the wake of the allegations of his involvement in illegal mining, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that his Cabinet colleague has been accused of “illegal dumping in forest land” and not “illegal mining”.
Interacting with reporters soon after landing in Dharmasthala on Sunday, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that though Mr. Lad’s partnership company, V.S. Lad and Sons, had been brought under Category C (implying a high degree of illegalities) classification by the Central Empowered Committee, the violations pertained only to dumping of ore residue beyond the boundary allotted to the company.
“Dumping has overflowed into forest land. The company that is facing the charge of being involved in illegal mining is V.S. Lad Mining Company, in which he [Mr. Lad] has no stake. The Minister has produced documents in support of this,” the Chief Minister said and added that even the Lokayukta report and the Supreme Court did not have anything on Mr. Lad.
With freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy and Samaj Parivartan Samudaya president S.R. Hiremath seeking the Minister’s resignation from the Cabinet, Mr. Siddaramaiah said: “Let Mr. Hiremath show the documents. We will peruse them and then take action.”
