Congress involved in Rs 2,500-cr mining lease scam: BJP

The BJP has accused the ruling Congress of having a hand in a “Rs 2,500 crore scam” that involved the renewal of leases of eight mining companies by 20 years.

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, K S Eshwarappa, hurled the corruption charges at the State government in the Council on Friday.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said Eshwarappa was making “wild charges” and accused him of being “irresponsible”.

It all began when Eshwarappa sought to know how the government had given eight mining leaseholders a Letter of Intent extending their leases to 20 years recently.

Eshwarappa said the renewal of leases was in violation of an ordinance to amend the Mines and Minerals Development & Regulation (MMDR) Act 1957, which was promulgated last month.

He also sought to know how the eight mining leaseholders had been “selected” when there were hundreds of applications for renewal of mining leases pending before the government. “There is information that the deal had been done for Rs 2,500 crore and this is a bigger scam than the Arkavathi denotification mess,” Eshwarappa said.

Siddaramaiah countered Eshwarappa, saying, “It was the BJP government that looted the State and several of its leaders had even gone to jail,” the chief minister said.

The blame game continued with Congress and BJP members trading charges.

Siddaramaiah explained that the eight mining companies had submitted reports from the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) recommending that their leases could be renewed. Besides, the State government has powers to renew mining leases as per Section 8(3) of the MMDR Act and the ordinance did not touch this section.

The State was facing severe shortage of iron ore. While the Supreme Court had allowed mining of 30 million tonnes of iron ore per year, only 13 million tonnes could be extracted last year.

The renewals will help in improving the scale of extraction, Siddaramaiah said. If more mining companies come with IBM clearances, their mining leases would be renewed, he added.

Siddaramaiah said the companies will have to get clearances from the Ministry of Environment and Forests before going ahead with mining. Not satisfied by the reply, the BJP members staged a walkout.