Karnataka Government would initiate action on the Lokayukta report on illegal mining once the high-level committee set up to study its findings, expected in about ten days, Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said on Tuesday.
The committee set up under the chairmanship of Additional Chief Secretary K Jairaj had already directed concerned departments to issue notices to those employees indicted in the report, Mr. Gowda said in an interaction with Editors of newspapers at his official residence “Krishna”.
About 770 officials have been named in the Lokayukta report, Mr. Gowda said adding the report would be placed before the cabinet meeting and it would take “further steps”.
“As far as the Chief Minister is concerned, the competent authority to act is the Governor. The Governor has already acted (against then Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa). On ministers, I have the powers. I will discuss it in the cabinet meeting”, he said.
Holding his first formal interaction with journalists since he took over as the Chief Minister on August 3 succeeding Mr. Yeddyurappa, Mr. Gowda reiterated that there was no need for seeking a CBI probe into illegal mining “at this stage”.
“We already have the Lokayukta report. We can’t in parallel hand over (the probe) to CBI,” he said.
Mr. Gowda, however, hastened to add “if the cabinet feels, we should hand over it to CBI, then we will see. At this stage, it does not arise at all”.
Banning of mining activities in Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur has triggered “lot of problems” and about 1.4 lakh people had been rendered jobless. The State has lost Rs 4,000 crore revenue so far, he said.
“We are in a dilemma on how to go about it. Continued shut down of mining activity might create law and order problems”, he apprehended.
