Govt has issued 15 fresh mining leases: Congress
CM’s repeated denials stand exposed, allege Ugrappa and Kondaiah
The Congress on Wednesday termed as ''false'' B S Yeddyurappa's claim that he had granted no iron ore mining leases since he assumed the office as Chief Minister, and alleged that the Government had issued 15 mining leases and had recommended to the Centre’s approval the lease applications of nine companies.
Addressing reporters, the party leader V S Ugrappa claimed that the Chief Minister has also issued 17 companies temporary working permissions for mining even though they were yet to obtain the mandatory forest and environment clearances.
He released a set of documents with names of the companies and dates on which the leases have been executed with respect to 15 firms and fresh mining grants have been recommended with respect to nine firms. Some of the companies are: Arrow Minerals, Thangavelu and Others, G G Brothers, Tungabhadra Minerals Mineral Enterprises and M Hanumanth Rao.
Value addition
The Chief Minister had been claiming that all applications seeking fresh mining leases had been kept pending, and that the Government would process applications of only those who have come forward to do value addition to ore. Congress MLC K C Kondaiah alleged that Tourism Minister G Janardhana Reddy was was evading tax, by exporting iron ore in the name of GLA Trading International, a Singapore-based company.
“The company has exported ore worth over Rs 300 crore in the last few months using undervalued invoices. The company would get $150 per tonne of ore in China, but the price mentioned in the invoice is just $70. It has thus evaded taxes to the tune of several crores,” he alleged and added that Reddy is one of the directors of the company.
Illegal mining
Both Ugrappa and Kondaiah alleged that the Chief Minister is directly involved in illegal mining and many BJP leaders including Sushma Swaraj and Venkaiah Naidu are getting a share of money made through illegal mining.
