Inspectors accused in mining scam still working in Lokayukta: CM

July 24, 2013

Inspectors_accusedBangalore, Jul 24: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said two police officers who are facing corruption charges in illegal mining cases are still working in the Lokayukta.

Disclosing this in the Legislative Assembly while replying to Mallikarjuna S Khuba (JD-S), the chief minister said police inspectors Nagaraj M Madalli and M Dharmendra, who had earlier worked in Bellary district, are facing the allegations of receiving bribe from mining scam accused Kharadapudi Mahesh of Hospet.

Nagaraj who is said to have received bribe while he was in the Hadagali police station, is now inspector at the Bagalkot Lokayukta office. Dharmendra, who had earlier worked at Bellary’s Hagari police station, is now inspector at Mysore Lokayukta office.

In a report submitted to the House, Siddaramaiah has also stated that IPS officer Sonia Narang too is facing allegations of encouraging illegal mining. Now she is commandant, first battalion, KSRP, Bangalore. He said that the government was considering action against her.

The Lokayukta, in his report, had stated that 787 officers including 191 police officers were party to the illegal mining. It has already been reported that IPS officers M N Nagaraj and Eshwarachandra Sagar are facing charges. For the first time, Narang’s name has been made public in this regard.

Action delayed

The chief minister admitted that there has been a delay in taking action against officials who colluded with those who were into illegal mining. But he hastened to add that his government was not responsible for it. The final report reached the government two years ago on August 27. But, there has been a delay in taking action against the guilty officials. A committee will be constituted to decide the course of action to be taken, after the conclusion of the legislature session.

He said that notices have been issued to the 198 officers who are facing bribery charges. The CID is probing five officers, while the Lokayukta has been investigating 98 others. The committee headed by police officer V S D’Souza has been able to identify 97 police personnel who had allegedly encouraged illegality. But, it has not been able to identify 94 personnel.

Replying to Eshwara Khandre (Cong), Siddaramaiah said that as per the Indian Bureau of Mines’ report of 2010, the state has 9,959 million tonnes of iron ore deposit. In the last three years, 7.65 crore tonnes of ore has been extracted and the royalty earned by the state was Rs 1,519.68 crore.

Special court may try cases

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah assured the Assembly that the government would consider the suggestion to set up a fast track court to try illegal mining cases.

Mallikarjuna Khuba (JD-S) and Basavaraj Rayareddy (Cong) pressured the chief minister to set up a special court. Siddaramaiah, who was not categorical in his reply, just said he would look into the suggestion.

He said the State has suffered a loss of Rs 16,000 crore due to illegal ore export. In addition, the tax evasion was Rs 2,000 crore. The government would try to recover the losses, 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
April 19,2020

New Delhi, Apr 19: The government on Sunday prohibited the sale of non-essential items through e-commerce platforms during the ongoing lockdown, four days after allowing such companies to sale mobile phones, refrigerators and ready-made garments.

Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla issued an order excluding the non-essential items from sale by the e-commerce companies from the consolidated revised guidelines, which listed the exemption given to the services and people from the purview of the lockdown.

The order said the following clause "E-commerce companies. Vehicles used by e-commerce operators will be allowed to ply with necessary permissions" is excluded from the guidelines.

The previous order had said such items were allowed for sale through e-commerce platforms from April 20.

However, the reason for reversing the order is not known immediately.

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 11,2020

Jaipur, Mar 11: A 85-year-old man in Jaipur, who had returned from Dubai on February 28, has tested positive for coronavirus, a state government official said on Wednesday.

He was found presumptive positive in the first test on Tuesday and hence, a second test was conducted with fresh samples, the reports of which arrived late Tuesday night, Additional Chief Secretary, Medical and Health, Rohit Kumar Singh, said.

“The man who travelled to Dubai has been tested positive for coronavirus. It has been confirmed now,” Singh said.

“We have also got the manifest of the Spicejet flight he took from Dubai to Jaipur and are doing due diligence on that,” the official said, adding that intense contact tracing was underway.

The man has been kept in isolation at the SMS Hospital here.

“The man came to the hospital on Monday with symptoms of the virus. After the first test, his wife and son too have been kept in isolation at the hospital. The two, however, do not have coronavirus affliction symptoms,” Singh said.

A total of 235 people who came in contact with the octogenarian and his family have already been traced and are being monitored, he said.

Other contacts are also being traced, Singh added.

An Italian couple, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week, are also admitted in the hospital but their condition is improving, he said.

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 13,2020

Mumbai, Mar 13:  Investor wealth worth nearly Rs 12 lakh crore was wiped out in less than 15 minutes of trading on the stock exchanges on Friday, with the two benchmarks, the BSE Sensex and the NSE Nifty, crashing over 10 per cent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex plummeted 3,380.59 points, or 10.31 per cent, to 29,397.55. It hit an intra-day low of 29,388.97, falling up to 3,389.17 points.

Trading was halted for 45 minutes in the early session after the index hit its lower circuit limit.

The BSE and NSE benchmark indices, however, pared most losses with the Sensex trading 835.40 points, or 2.55 per cent, lower at 31,942.74, and the Nifty was down 253.25 points or 2.64 per cent at 9,336.90 at 10.40 am.

The mayhem on Dalal Street eroded investor wealth worth Rs 12,92,479.88 crore, taking the total m-cap to Rs 1,12,78,172.75 crore on the BSE at 1020 hours.

The m-cap of BSE-listed companies stood at Rs 1,25,70,652.63 crore at the end of trading on Thursday.

Traders said besides global selloff, incessant foreign fund outflows also weighed on investor sentiments.

On a net basis, foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 3,475.29 crore on Thursday, data available with stock exchanges showed.

On the BSE, 1,279 scrips declined, while 193 advanced and 40 remained unchanged.

Volatility heightened in global markets as benchmarks world over went into panic mode, insinuating a freakish selloff.

Bourses in Shanghai dropped over 3.32 per cent, Hong Kong 5.61 per cent, Seoul 7.58 per cent and Tokyo cracked up to 7.97 per cent.

Wall Street lost 10 per cent in overnight trade.

More than 1,30,000 cases of the novel coronavirus have been recorded in 116 countries and territories, killing at least 4,900 people.

The number of coronavirus patients in India has risen to 74, as per the health ministry.

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.