Bangalore: Karnataka government would
initiate action on the Lokayukta report on illegal mining once
the high-level committee set up to study it submitted its
findings, expected in about 10 days, Chief Minister D V
Sadananda Gowda said on Tuesday.
The committee set up under the chairmanship of Additional
Chief Secretary K Jairaj had already directed concerned
departments to issue notices to those employees indicted in
the report, Gowda said in an interaction with Editors of
newspapers at his official residence "Krishna".
About 770 officials have been named in the Lokayukta
report, Gowda said adding the report would be placed before
the cabinet meeting and it would take "further steps".
"As far as the Chief Minister is concerned, the competent
authority to act is the Governor. The Governor has already
acted (against then Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa). On
ministers, I have the powers. I will discuss it in the cabinet
meeting", he said.
Holding his first formal interaction with journalists since
he took over as the Chief Minister on August 3 succeeding
Yeddyurappa, Gowda reiterated that there was no need for
seeking a CBI probe into illegal mining "at this stage".
"We already have the Lokayukta report. We can`t parallelly
hand over (the probe) to CBI," he said.
Gowda, however, hastened to add "if the cabinet feels, we
should hand over it to CBI, then we will see. At this stage,
it does not arise at all".
Banning of mining activities in Bellary, Chitradurga
and Tumkur has triggered "lot of problems" and about 1.4 lakh
people had been rendered jobless. The state has lost Rs 4,000
crore revenue so far, he said.
"We are in a dilemma on how to go about it. Continued shut
down of mining activity might create law and order problems",
he apprehended.
PTI
