Inquiry officer named to probe mining charges

 The State government has appointed K Radhakrishna Holla, the retired district judge, to investigate the charges of illegal mining against six officials.

The government had earlier appointed retired IAS officer S M Jaamdar as the inquiry officer. But he did not take up the work. Hence, the government has now appointed Holla.

The officials who are facing illegal mining charges are: Dr P Rajashekaran, deputy conservator of forests, T V Srinivasan, J Srinivas Murthy, K K Poovaiah, all assistant conservators of forests, and range forest officers Mahesh A Patil and H Ramamurthy.

No time limit has been fixed for completing the inquiry, but the government has asked the inquiry officer to complete the assigned work at the earliest.