Oppn alleges a quid pro quo scam

The combined Opposition in the Legislative Assembly on Monday put B S Yeddyurappa in a tight spot over a trust run by the family members of the chief minister, claiming that certain private firms received favours from the government after they made donations running into crores of rupees to the organisation.

The Opposition said the donations by some companies to the Prerana Education and Social Trust, exceeded their turnover.

The Opposition vehemently demanded that a CBI inquiry be ordered into the finances of the trust.

However, Yeddyurappa turned down the demand saying that the Trust is “doing good work”.

He denied that he had not done any favours to firms that donated to the trust.

The protracted debate on the issue witnessed several heated exchange of words
between the Treasury benches and the Opposition.

Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah alleged that several private companies including JSW Steel Limited and Adarsha Developers had made donations totalling more than Rs 27 crore to the trust run by the family members of the chief minister.

Yeddyurappa’s sons B Y Raghavendra, MP and B Y Vijendra, PES Chairman and MLC M R Doreswamy and his son T Jawahar and Adarsha Developers Managing Director B M Jaishankar are trustees of the trust based in Shimoga.

The chief minister said the trust was running MBA, degree, PUC and engineering courses in Shimoga district and 1,800 students were studying in the institutions. The donations by the private firms to the trust were voluntary,Yeddyurappa claimed.

Rs 118 crore dues

Siddaramaiah said JSW owed the government-owned Mysore Mineral Limited (MML) more than Rs 118 crore in outstanding dues which the government had failed to collect. The government had also turned a blind eye to the violations by JSW including non-execution of share holders agreement and profit-sharing that had resulted in huge losses to MML.
In return, JSW and its sister concern South West Mining Limited had made donations to the tune of Rs 20 crore to the trust, Siddaramaiah said.

 In his reply, the chief minister denied extending favours to JSW.

“On the other hand, I have increased the premium being paid to MML by JSW from six per cent to 50 per cent from April 1 last year, resulting in the state-owned mining company getting Rs 250 crore a year”.

Land encroachment

On the Opposition allegations that government had also turned a blind eye to Adarsha Developers allegedly encroaching 13.35 acres of government land near Varthur in Bangalore, Yeddyurappa said “only 13 guntas had been encroached” and had been covered into a road.

The Opposition stuck to their stand seeking an inquiry  by the Central Bureau of Investigation even as Speaker K G Bopaiah adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier in the day, Yedyurappa said he would not remain in his post for a moment if proved that the trust has misused money, after Opposition leader Siddaramaiah made a preliminary submission seeking to move an adjournment motion on the issue.

“Like many other members of the House, we also run an educational trust, and it functions through public donations... I am ready to face any probe in this regard,” he said.

The Speaker, however, rejected the plea for adjournment motion and agreed to allow for a discussion in a different form.

In the Council

In the Legislative Council too, the Opposition parties made a futile attempt to move an adjournment motion against the government on the issue, claiming that huge sums of money had been donated to the trust by companies that had received favours from the government.

The Opposition staged a dharna, but later withdrew it following the Chair promising allowing a debate under some other rule.