Illegal mining: After Karnataka min's letter to Siddaramaiah questioning 'inaction', BJP questions selective probe

Days after Karnataka Law Minister H.K. Patil wrote a strongly worded letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, criticising the government's “inaction” in prosecuting illegal mining cases that rocked the state between 2007 and 2011, former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, now the BJP MP from Haveri, demanded a probe into the “selective” mining license renewals during Siddaramaiah’s first stint as the chief minister.

 

Patil, in a seven-page letter dated June 18, called it a “criminal failure” to pursue justice in cases involving illegal extraction of mineral wealth. “The Lokayukta report (on illegal mining) in 2011 had pegged the loss to the state exchequer at a staggering ₹1.5 lakh crore. But despite registering over 12,000 cases, only 26 verdicts (about 0.21 per cent) had been delivered, and just 7.6 per cent of cases investigated,” said Patil, adding that during 2013-2018, as head of a cabinet subcommittee, he had warned that if immediate steps were not taken, vital files could go missing.

 

The minister urged the chief minister to appoint a recovery commissioner to seize and recover assets acquired through illegal mining under the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance (1946), and to establish a Special Investigation Team (SIT) with legal and police powers to pursue the pending cases. He also sought setting up of a special court to expedite prosecution and conviction in mining-related crimes and a legal review of post-2017 mining lease renewals.

 

Bommai, while backing Patil's demands, also questioned the Congress government's silence on the mining lease renewals after 2017. “The law minister (Patil) is referring to cases from before 2017–18. During Siddaramaiah’s previous tenure as CM, the Centre had passed a law requiring all mines in the country to be auctioned. But before this central law was enforced, the Karnataka government had renewed many mining leases in favour of select individuals. Will Patil agree to investigate those renewals as well?,” asked Bommai, taking a dig at Patil seeking a selective probe into illegal mining that occurred during the Bharatiya Janata Party (Yediyurappa) government.

 

Home Minister G. Parameshwara, however, downplayed the issue, stating that "the allegations are not grave."

 

It may be recalled that the Lokayukta report of 2011, prepared by Justice Santosh Hegde, detailed a systematic plundering of natural resources involving politicians, bureaucrats and mining firms. The report highlighted massive illegalities in Ballari, Chitradurga and Tumakuru, pegging losses at ₹16,085 crore. On August 5, 2011, the Supreme Court imposed a blanket ban on iron ore mining in Ballari district, following a report by the Central Empowered Committee and a PIL by NGO Samaj Parivartana Samudaya, citing irreversible ecological damage and illegal extraction by powerful companies and politicians.

 

The scam had forced Yediyurappa to resign from the chief minister post in July 2011, after being named in the report. He was arrested in October 2011 in a land denotification scam linked to mining kickbacks and had to spend 23 days in jail before being released on bail. The report had also led to a split in the BJP as Yediyurappa floated the Karnataka Janata Party, only to rejoin the BJP ahead of the 2014 Parliament polls.

 

 

Interestingly, in 2010, Siddaramaiah, then leader of opposition, launched a 320-km-long ‘padayatra’ – from Bengaluru to Ballari, to challenge and expose the Reddy brothers, the mining barons in Ballari and to hold the ruling BJP accountable for the rampant illegal mining in the state. He emerged as a mass leader and was elevated to the post of chief minister in 2013, after the Congress party wrested power from the BJP by winning 122 seats in the 224-member Assembly. 

India