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Cong govt too indulged in illegal mining, MML sold iron ore worth Rs 5000 cr illegally: HDK

News Network
January 13, 2018

Bengaluru, Jan 13: Not only previous governments, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah led Congress government too has indulged in rampant illegal mining, according to former chief minister and JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy.

Speaking to media persons here on Saturday, Mr Kumaraswamy, who is also facing illegal mining charges, claimed that iron ore wroth over Rs 5,000 crore has been illegally lifted and transported by the state owned Mysore Minerals Ltd (MML) between 2014 and 2017.

Kumaraswamy said that an internal inquiry by senior officers of the department of Mines and Geology had revealed that 60,56,440 MT of ore had been illegally lifted and sold by MML.

He said, MML had entered into a three-year agreement with Subbarayanahalli Iron Ore Mines and Thimmappanagudi Iron Ore Mines, to mine ore in Sandur taluk in Ballari district from November 27, 2014 to March 31, 2017.

Contracts had also been awarded to S S Muchandi (excavation); Amit Earth Movers (drilling); Vishal Enterprises (crushing/screening); and South West Mining Ltd Kumaraswamy alleged.

The former CM said that as per the committee report dated April 27, 2017, Rs 2,062 crore worth ore was illegally lifted and transported within the state between 2014 and 2015 itself.

MML officials had swindled money by tampering with the records of the production register book. Officials had shown records of less quantity of ore being mined, where the quantum of ore excavated was much higher, he said.

As many as eight IAS officers (serving as Director, Mines and Geology) who tried to expose the scam had been transferred by the government in quick succession.

"IAS officer Munish Moudgil was transferred barely one month after he took charge. The office of the chief minister is directly involved in this illegality," he said.

He also pointed out that the IAS officer Tushar Girinath was heading the department at the height of the scam. Girinath is Siddaramaiah's principal secretary.

"The government was forced to constitute the inquiry committee after another IAS officer P Hemalatha wanted to refer the matter to the Lokayukta," said Kumaraswamy.

He also said that though the contractors had single permits, they had made multiple trips and transported the raw material illegally.

The committee had also highlighted that South West Mining Ltd had carried out excavations on behalf of S S Muchandi, as the latter had no excavation equipment.

"It is a fact that BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa has links with South West Mining Ltd. Ironically, the illegal mining activities carried out by the Congress government is worse than previous BJP regime. These people are more intelligent - they know how to escape, unlike Yeddyurappa who was caught red handed with a cheque," he said.

Kumaraswamy also hinted that Siddaramaiah was in the know of the illegalities. "The Mines department continues to be under Siddaramaiah. Minister Vinay Kulkarni holds the portfolio in name alone. This kind of rampant illegalities cannot be carried out without the blessings of the higher ups," he added and demanded a fair probe into the matter.

Comments

Danish
 - 
Saturday, 13 Jan 2018

HDK targeting only congress and siddaramaiah.

Kumar
 - 
Saturday, 13 Jan 2018

How many allegations? how many promises? Hyperactive Devegowda Kumaraswamy = HDK

Mohan
 - 
Saturday, 13 Jan 2018

Wow.. HDK became hyperactive in these days

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News Network
May 22,2020
Bengaluru, May 22: Evacuation planes from Male in Maldives and Doha in Qatar landed in Bengaluru with returnees from Karnataka after they were stranded for two months due to suspension of international flights since March 23 and the extended lockdown, an official said on Friday.
 
"An Air-India flight (#0266) with 152 passengers from Male and its subsidiary Express flight (IX-0822) with 177 returnees and 5 infants from Doha landed here safely at 6.50 pm. and 9.05 pm respectively," an airline official told media persons in Bengaluru.
 
Both the flights are first from their respective countries to Bengaluru, bringing in returnees to the southern state in the second phase of the Vande Bharat mission, being carried out to evacuate Indians stranded the world over.
 
"As per the standard operating procedure and guidelines of the state health department, all the passengers were screened with thermal device and tested to ensure they were asymptomatic before leaving the airport," a nodal officer said.
 
The returnees were given a spare mask to wear all the time and a sanitiser to wash their hands.
 
"The luggage of all passengers was screened and disinfected before handing over to them after they completed formalities such as filling the self-declaration form and downloading of the Quarantine App for contact tracing later,” said the official.
 
The passengers were ferried from the airport in state-run buses in batches for 14-day institutional quarantine in hotels and resorts across the city.
 
The flights were the 6th and 7th flights to Karnataka, of the national carrier and its Express arm, which are operating the service to repatriate thousands of Indians, including distressed workers, migrants, students, senior citizens and tourists, stranded overseas.
 
Five flights have flown about 650 returnees till date from May 18-21 under the mission's second phase to Bengaluru and Mangaluru on the west coast. The passengers have been brought from Dubai in the UAE, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Muscat in Oman, Dammam in Saudi Arabia and San Francisco in the US.
 
The remaining flights to Karnataka will land in Bengaluru and Mangaluru over the next 12 days till June 3 from 9-10 more destinations the world over.
 
In the first phase of the mission from May 7-17, the airline and its arm flew 6 flights to the state from May 11-15, bringing in 800 passengers, including 623 to Bengaluru and 177 to Mangaluru from London, Singapore, San Francisco and Dubai.

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News Network
March 11,2020

Bhopal, Mar 11: After meeting with 19 party MLAs who have tendered their resignations, Congress leader Sajjan Singh Verma on Wednesday said they are neither willing to support Jyotiraditya Scindia nor in favour of joining BJP as they were "misled and taken to Bengaluru" in Karnataka.

"Nobody is ready to go with Scindia ji. They said they were misled and taken to Bengaluru, most of them said they are not ready to join BJP," Verma told media persons on being asked about the 19 MLAs.

"I just came from Bengaluru and now I am going to Jaipur. Besides 5-6 ministers and one MLA, we all are going to Jaipur. They (MLAs) have said they have the blood of Congress and they will remain in the party. 
Since Scindia was a senior party leader, all our MLAs followed his order as a courtesy," he said.

The Congress leader further claimed that BJP is using both "muscle and money power" to influence Congress MLAs.

He also claimed that he is strongly in contact with 7-8 BJP MLAs.

On Tuesday, Congress sent two of its leaders -- Verma and Govind Singh -- to Bengaluru in order to pacify some of the rebel MLAs who are lodged in a hotel there and who claimed to have resigned from the state Legislative Assembly.

Most of the rebel MLAs are perceived close to Scindia and are apparently unhappy at Scindia being "ignored" in the party. The grand old party has been witnessing an internal turf war in Madhya Pradesh since the party formed the government in the state in 2018.

Scindia is likely to join BJP later today.

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News Network
June 26,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 26: Karnataka's Commercial Taxes Department has sealed off an undeclared warehouse with imported goods worth Rs 4 crore in Bengaluru and found 60 GST registrations linked to a Chinese national from Wuhan.

The tax department officials found 25,446 China-made electronic and fast-moving consumer goods worth Rs 4 crore stored in the warehouse which was not declared to the tax authorities.

Commissioner of Commercial Taxes MS Srikar said in a statement that the officers noticed that one person from Wuhan City, China, got the premises in Bengaluru on lease.

They also found that about 60 registrations (both central and state jurisdictions) under the GST Act, in the name of a number of persons for online trading of imported China-made goods, had a single address which was vacant.

Most of the registrations were found irregular in the filing of returns and payment of tax. Majority of the firms either filed nil returns or were non-filers. The registration data showed that one business was registered in 2017-18, 43 in 2018-19, 14 in 2019-20 and two in 2020-21. Most of the 60 firms were private limited companies and 24 persons were interchangeably directors in 58 firms.

At the time of raid, neither the lessee, the Chinese national, nor any of the other 59 registered taxable persons were available at the business premises and no one came forward to participate in the proceedings in spite of providing sufficient time.

It is learnt that the Chinese national is operating the business from Wuhan City since January 2020 with the assistance of some of his agents/employees in Bengaluru.

It has also been learnt that multiple registrations are being taken for a better rating on e-commerce platforms, Srikar said.

The raids were led by Nitesh K Patil, Additional Commissioner, Enforcement, South Zone.
The Commercial Taxes Department is closely watching the genuineness of newly registered persons and conducting post-registration verification visits.

Any registration taken with mala fide intention of evading taxes will be dealt with seriously, the Commissioner said. 

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