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Congress leaders involved in illegal mining: Reddy

Bellary’s mining baron says Congressmen like Anil Lad, Abdul Wahab, Allam, Ghorpade were indulging in illegal mining, causing the state exchequer losses to the tune of lakhs of crores of rupees.

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Meeting the Congress’ challenge head on over the mining muddle in Karnataka, tourism minister G Janardhana Reddy on Monday released a list of Congress leaders who he alleged were involved in illegal mining in the state.

Former ministers MY Ghorpade, Allam Veerabhadrappa, MP Anil Lad, his brother and MLA Santosh Lad, KPCC general secretary Abdul Wahab and  former MP HG Ramulu were among the prominent Congress leaders who had engaged in illegal mining, causing losses to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees to the state exchequer, Reddy alleged.

Speaking of the Reddy family, he said, “We are like pure gold,
original 24 carat. Nobody can pick even a single black spot in us. We are proud to say that born as children of a police constable, we have risen to the level of owning thousands of crores of rupees, all by dint of hard work, god’s blessings, honesty and humility. Nobody can change our fate, which has been decided by god. We have entered politics not with the arrogance of money, but with humility, to serve the people,” he said.

Reiterating the BJP government’s resolve to end illegal mining, he said a survey was being conducted to detect the exact quantum of encroachments  and illegal mining. In several cases, notices had been issued and the companies concerned asked to stop mining.

However, most of them had approached the high court and managed to obtain a stay order against any stoppage of work. “But we will stop it and also recover thousands of crores of rupees that these illegal miners have plundered over the last several years,” he declared.

In a marathon interaction with the media that stretched beyond 150 minutes, Reddy termed the Congress leaders ‘kings of corruption and scams’. Dismissing the charges of illegal mining against him and his brother Karunakara Reddy as baseless, he said, “Our family does not have even an inch of mining land in Karnataka. All our mining business is confined to Andhra Pradesh.”

As for the allegations that the Reddys had changed Andhra-Karnataka boundary markings and committed encroachments for illegal mining, Reddy, who furnished reports of the Andhra Pradesh legislature all-party probe committee report and the Supreme Court-appointed Survey Committee, said that the charges had been proved wrong.

“The border dispute is there since 1972 when I was just 5 years old. Congress leaders are trying to repeat the lies to make it look like truth,” he said.

Replying to allegations that the Reddys were indulging in loot of the state’s mineral resources, he said, “We entered the mining business six years back. But Congress leaders have been engaged in it for several generations. It is their culture to indulge in illegal mining and use the corrupt money for their politics. It is not BJP culture.”

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