Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar has alleged that the State government had connived with the Baldota group to allow mining in the bio-diversity rich Kappatagudda hill range.
Addressing a press meet here on Thursday, Mr. Shettar termed the High Court order on restraining the State Government from issuing final notification based on the outcome of public hearing on January 16, as a setback to the efforts to save Kappatagudda.
Although there was unanimous opinion in favour of restoring the conservation reserve tag for Kappatagudda in the meeting of the State Wildlife Board held on February 20, deliberately the State government delayed issue of notification, Mr. Shettar said.
He said that the Baldota Group had exerted undue pressure on the government and the Congress High Command, which yielded to the mining lobby.
“If the Chief Minister and the district-in-charge minister H.K. Patil are really concerned about saving Kappatagudda, then they should come out with exact details of the meeting held on Feb. 20, he said.
It was because of the government indecision that resulted in High Court of Karnataka issuing orders on restraining the former from issuing final orders, he said. “At least now, Congress Government should swing into action to get the legal hurdle cleared,” he said.
Speaking about the drought situation in the State, Mr. Shettar said the government had utterly failed in handling drought relief works. He urged the state government to release a white paper on the funds received from the Centre and how much it had utilised so far for the relief works, apart from funds released from the State government.
