Mines & Geology dept names six ex-officers in illegal mining report

The Mines and Geology Department has named six of its former directors and joint directors as being involved in 20 different cases of illegal mining over the past six years in the State.

The names include those of M E Shivalingamurthy (IAS), Gangaram Baderia (IAS), K S Prabhakar (IAS), Basappa Reddy, D R Veeranna and H M Khayum Ali.

While Basappa Reddy retired as the director of the department, Veeranna and Ali were additional directors.

They are part of 72 names which have been listed by the Directorate of Mines and Geology in cases of illegal mining which spans across three districts of Bellary, Tumkur and Chitradurga.

The 23-page Action Taken Report (ATR) suggests that the department has prepared a list of the officials involved in each of the 20 cases listed in the Lokayukta report on illegal mining and was submitted to the government in 2011. The ATR was being prepared by the department at the behest of the Chief Minister’s directives on Spetember 21 to submit the ATR within two weeks of the direction. While Shivalingamurthy’s name figures in two cases of corruption involving AMC mining (G Janardhan Reddy) and Rama Rao Paol, Gangaram Baderia’s name figures in three cases of corruption and involvement in abetting illegal mining.

The report also speaks about Rs 2.46 crore of bribe distributed to 23 officials in the Mines and Geology department by Kharadapudi Mahesh and his accomplices. Mahesh was in the ‘ring’ of the Reddy brothers involved in illegal mining. The officials include senior geologists and assistant directors from the Department of Mines and Geology. It is said that the above sum was distributed to the officials from the Rs 40.92 crore collected by Mahesh from the 382 mining companies as ‘risk money’ for running the business between November 2009 and April 2010.

The Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms issued a Government Order on September 26 to set up a committee under a retired District Ccourt judge, D V Shet, Dharwad, to investigate into the actions of 25 officials from the Public Works, Ports and Inland Water Transport departments in the Belekeri iron ore scam.

The department has given Shet three months’ time to complete the investigation and submit the report to the government. The names include that of the present director of ports and inland water transport, Capt R Mohan, and Capt C Swamy, a former port officer.