Friday, January 07,
The somewhat-fragile BJP government in Karnataka has been dealt another blow: An expert committee has ruled that Cabinet ministers, the Reddy brothers, have been running an illegal mining empire across the border in Andhra Pradesh, and that their mining licenses should be cancelled.
The report of the Centrally Empowered Committee (CEC), set up by the Supreme Court, says that G Janardhana Reddy and his brother Karnakara Reddy have been mining in areas demarcated as Forest Areas since 2004.
The report says that the Reddy brothers were allowed to do this “with the connivance of Andhra Pradesh government officials.”
The committee says that the Reddys’ mines extracted more minerals than were permitted in their leases. It recommends that the Reddys pay “exemplary compensation” for mining in reserved forest areas.
Reacting to the CEC report, Janardhan Reddy said the Supreme Court panel’s report was motivated. “It’s totally with a prejudiced mind, it is totally against us, When time comes I will tell the names of the politicians of this country who want to finish the steel industry and the Janardhan Reddy family, ” Reddy said.
“We are going to file our objections before the Supereme Court,” he added saying that the Court had given them 15 days to respond.
The Supreme Court has taken a serious note of the report and said, “We are going to examine on much wider platform not on individual case.”
Source: NDTV
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