Illegal mining: Congress blames Santosh Hegde for corruption

In a new twist to the political developments related to the soon-to-be released Lok Ayukta report on illegal mining in Karnataka, All India Congress Committee general secretary and Lok  Sabha MP, BK Hariprasad on Sunday accused Lok Ayukta justice N Santosh Hegde of encouraging corruption in the state by being biased towards chief minister BS Yeddyurappa.

He made these comments in response to the reports of three top BJP leaders having approached the Lok Ayukta six months ago to influence him to drop Yeddyurappa’s name from the report on illegal mining.

Hegde had recently admitted that three BJP leaders Dr VS Acharya (higher education minister), AG Kodgi (state finance commission chairman) and V Dhananjay Kumar (government’s representative in Delhi) had approached him and sought the exclusion of the chief minister’s name from his final report on illegal mining.

“Why did he not disclose it earlier? This clearly shows that Hegde is favouring BJP and encouraging corruption in Karnataka. He occupies a responsible position and he should not have done that. I urge Hegde to resign from his job immediately. Though he has a little more than a week to retire, he must step down immediately,” said Hariprasad.

State Congress chief G Parameshwar sought the immediate resignations of Yeddyurappa, Acharya, Kodgi and Kumar.