Congress leader lashes out at party over JSW land deal

TNN
June 6, 2019

Bengaluru, Jun 6: Barely 24 hours after senior Congress leader R Ramalinga Reddy slammed leaders of his party for the poor show in the Lok Sabha elections, another veteran Congressman, HK Patil, hit out at his colleague, KJ George, over a land deal.

Patil criticized the Congress-JD(S) coalition government for selling 3,666 acres of land (2,000 acres in 2006 and 1,666 acres in 2007 at Toranagallu, Sandur taluk, Ballari district) to Sajjan Jindal-promoted JSW Steel for a concessional price. This, despite the company owing the state-owned Mysore Mineral Limited (MML) Rs 1,200 crore for failing to honour its commitments and unilaterally hiking premium on iron ore in its joint venture.

Ever since the cabinet decided two weeks ago to execute an absolute sale deed in favour of JSW for 2,666 acres of land — the company has constructed its steel plant and township on the land — the government has been struggling to justify the decision. Opposition from within and outside has landed the coalition in a spot of bother.

Last week, the government had claimed that Jindal fulfilled all conditions and George, who is minister of large and medium size industry in HD Kumaraswamy’s cabinet, had claimed that Jindal had no dues pending towards the state government.

However, on Wednesday, Patil released documents on his official Twitter handle citing cases filed in Bengaluru’s city civil court and also a dispute between the two parties that suggest JSW still owes the government over Rs 1,200 crore. Patil claimed he had even written two letters to Kumaraswamy in this regard, but they were ignored.

The documents included findings of the Comptroller and Accountant General (CAG) in a report probing the losses in MML. The CAG noted alleged faults in JSW’s dealings with MML and its failure to honour its agreements with the PSU.

Neither George, who was flying to Delhi, nor officials from the industries department were available for comments.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 12,2020

Hassan, Mar 13: In what could have been a major tragedy, an under construction flyover across Hassan-Mangaluru railway level crossing, near the new KSRTC Bus stand here collapsed today.

Fortunately no casualties occurred despite six concrete beems of 50 feet height, collapsed and broke into pieces.

The much awaited project was completely neglected by the successive governments for over a decade due to politics.  It was sanctioned eight months ago.

The Rs 42 crore project was taken up by a joint venture between state, center and South Eastern railway. The contractor or the Engineer were not present when the incident occurred.

Blaming the contractor, the locals alleged that poor quality of work led to the incident. No contractor or engineer was present even during construction, they added. Siddaiah, who runs an eatery near KSRTC bus stand said that it could have been a major tragedy if people were underneath the flyover when it crashed. The incident should be probe and the contractor should be punished, he added.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 29,2020

Bantwal, Karnataka, May 29: Vitla Police have registered a case against four persons, including a Bajrang Dal leader, on charges of assaulting a boy and forcing him to chant 'Jai Shree Ram', video of which had gone viral on social media.

Police said on Friday that the accused have been identified as Bajrang Dal leader Dinesh, a resident of Kanyana, and two 16-year-old youngsters from Kolnadu village and a 17-year-old boy from Kanyana village. The victim of the assault has been identified as the first PUC student of Kudtumugaru.

On April 21, at around 11 am, four accused waylaid the boy's bike and started abusing him. They then dragged the boy to Kadumath High School grounds and assaulted and posed life threat. Besides, they forced him to chant ''Jai Shree Ram,'' he stated in the complaint.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
coastaldigest.com news network
June 1,2020

Mangaluru, June 1: The private bus services resumed services in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts today with 15 per cent hike in the fares. For 70 days these buses were stayed off the roads as lockdown was imposed in the region on March 22 in the wake of covid-19 outbreak.

Buses were sanitised in the morning. The bus operators have decided to operate only a few of the buses initially.

Of the about 2,000 service buses (inter-district buses and long-route buses within the district) of private operators in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, only 25% resumed services. Only 135 out of 320 city buses in Mangaluru resumed services.

The number of passengers on board the buses were also very less in the morning. A few buses had arranged sanitisers for passengers, drivers and conductors.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.