In Karnataka, special team to assess Covid ‘scam worth hundreds of crores’

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil told reporters that the interim report indicated a scam worth “hundreds of crores”. The Commission has also flagged that several files related to Covid management were missing.

“Misappropriation, mishandling and malpractice worth hundreds of crores has taken place (as per the report). Many files that are said to be missing were not submitted to him (Justice D’Cunha) despite attempts to track the files,” he said.

The team of officials will take up further analysis and will place it before the CM and the Cabinet again, the minister said, adding that the state government could table the interim report in the next session of state legislature.

Mahadayi Project

The Cabinet also decided to hold an all-party meeting and take an all-party delegation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the National Board for Wildlife deferred the decision to approve the Mahadayi Project.

In the 79th meeting of the Board, Patil said that it had decided to take up the subject of approving the project later. During the same meeting, the Board granted approval to the Goa government to construct a 400 KV power line between Goa and Tamnur through a forest area of 435 acre, he said, adding that the move was part of continued injustice towards Karnataka.

Moreover, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change also wrote to Karnataka about the Goa power line project as substantial part of forest land required for the project is in Karnataka. “The Cabinet discussed the issue and expressed serious concerns (over deferring the decision),” Patil said.