'Scams cost Rs. 1 lakh cr loss to State exchequer'

The State exchequer has incurred a loss of about Rs one lakh crore through denotification, scams related to Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), illegal mining and transfer scams during the last two-and-a-half years of BJP rule, alleged former Opposition Leader in the Legislative Council V S Ugrappa.

Addressing reporters here on Sunday, Ugrappa said the Justice Padmaraj Commission of inquiry was set up by the government only to protect Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa. “As per rule, the State government has no binding for any inquiry commission reports. The government can either accept or reject the report submitted by an inquiry commission.

Yeddyurappa and his cabinet colleagues would have landed up in jail if the land scam cases were handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. To prevent that Yeddyurappa had handed over the cases to Justice Padmaraj Commission,” Ugrappa charged.

“I had mentioned in detail in the report of the fact finding committee appointed by the KPCC in 2008 that crores of rupees is being looted through illegal iron ore mining in the State.

Chief Conservator of Forests U V Singh and Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde too have brought to the notice of the government the same issue in their reports. Further, the forest department officials of Andhra Pradesh also had stated in their report that mining is being taking place illegally in Karnataka by the miners, who have licence to carry out mining in Andhra Pradesh. However, Yeddyurappa did not take any action other than ordering a judicial probe,” Ugrappa lamented.

Talking about the results of the zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat elections, Ugrappa said that Yeddyurappa should have resigned from the Chief Minister’s post on moral grounds. “Yeddyurappa had claimed that the party would secure majority in 20 out of 30 zilla panchayats and 100 out of 176 taluk panchayats in the State.

‘Corruption in cycle distribution’

Ugrappa alleged that the government had made excess payment of Rs 57 crore to purchase bicycles to distribute among students in 2008-09. “The total number of students studying in standard eighth, which was around 4,25,000 in 2007-08, has been jumped to about 6,65,000 as per education department’s record. However, the number of students in the same standard in 2009-10 has been reduced to about 4,34,000,” he said adding that a CBI inquiry should have been conducted to unearth the truth.