Bangalore: Karnataka Chief Minister B S
Yeddyurappa on Thursday made no secret that the mining lobby was
behind attempts to destabilise his government in tandem with
the opposition, but asserted that he would not succumb to any
threat.
"The lobby which especially tried to topple my government
....I will not yield to the lobby," he said shortly after his
government won the trust vote in the Assembly.
When asked to name the lobby, he refused to say it was
"mining" but left no one in doubt that he exactly meant that.
The BJP government had banned export of iron ore earlier
this year after it came under attack for alleged large scale
illegal mining in the state.
Yeddyurappa said it is well-known that the lobby attempted
to destabilise his government with hundreds of crores of
rupees and extended cooperation to opposition to topple it.
"These kinds of threats (destabilising his government)
came after we took strict programme (to ban export of iron
ore). We have done so to preserve the state`s (mineral)
resources. I am ready to pay any price. There is no question
of yielding to any lobby," he said.
The Chief Minister said that in the next few days, he
would meet the Prime Minister, Home Minister and Finance
Minister and thank them for their "cooperation" and added that
he would also seek their continued cooperation for the state`s
development.
PTI
