IN 2011, KARNATAKA lokayukta Santosh Hegde submitted a 466-page report detailing the mining scam in Ballari district that cost the state government more than 016,000 crore. The report described how the spurt in demand for iron ore, created by China’s infrastructure boom, had led to the granting of as many as 134 mining leases in Karnataka from 2001 to 2008. The leases were granted because of “pressures and political compulsions”, said the report, and they resulted in an illegal mining scam that caused huge losses to the government.
The report had politicians cutting across party lines in the dock. BJP leader B.S. Yediyurappa, who was chief minister at the time, was forced to step down. He was also arrested and indicted in a mining-related case and sent to jail.
More than a decade later, another case related to the granting of mining leases is creating controversy. The case pertains to a lease granted in 2007, when Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy was chief minister. Kumaraswamy is alleged to have flouted rules to grant a lease to mine 550 acres of forest land in Sandur, in Ballari district. The lease was obtained by Sri Sai Venkateshwara Minerals (SSVM), a company that allegedly had no experience in mining or selling iron ore.
On August 19 this year, a special investigating team (SIT) of the lokayukta sought Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot’s sanction to file a chargesheet against Kumaraswamy, who is currently Union minister of heavy industries. According to Kumaraswamy, the move smacked of political vendetta. Two days earlier, the governor had granted sanction to prosecute Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in a case related to an alleged land allotment scam. With Kumaraswamy and the opposition demanding his resignation, Siddaramaiah had threatened to “expose” the wrongdoings of opposition leaders who were part of previous governments.
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