CM in Bellary: Reddy arrest a Cong conspiracy

Gowdas comments on the CBI probe into the illegal mining activities of the Obulapuram Mining Company of the Reddy brothers come even as his government dithers on taking action against what the Karnataka Lokayukta report has called a mafia-style illegal mining operation being run in Bellary with the Reddy group as key players.

On Thursday,Gowda said that a CBI probe into the illegal mining racket in Karnataka would be meaningless. There is no meaning in the CBI inquiry into illegal mining in Karnataka since the Lokayukta is already looking into it, he had said.

The Governor,who was given a copy of the report into illegal mining by the Lokayukta,due to its indictment of the then chief minister B S Yeddyurappa,has cleared the ground for an investigation by the Lokayukta police resulting in the filing of an FIR against Yeddyurappa.

The government has set up a four-man committee to look into the charges against government officials but is yet to come up with any concrete action against other ministers and legislators indicted in the Lokayuktas report like the Reddy brothers and some of their associates.

Gowda has stated that a decision on action on others has been referred to the state Advocate General whose report is awaited by the government.

According to former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde,who prepared the report,the state government if it wants can use the Lokayukta report itself as a complaint and order investigations instead of stalling the process by various means.