Janardhana Reddy alleges Cong link in illegal mining

Under attack over alleged illegal mining, Karnataka Tourism Minister and owner of an iron ore mining company, G Janardhana Reddy, today alleged that many state Congress leaders were involved in illegal mining and export of iron ore.

Quoting a report of the Lokayukta (ombudsman) in support of his charges, Reddy said companies owned by Congress leaders M Y Ghorpade, V S Lad and sons, Allum Veerabhadrappa, H G Ramulu, S M Jain and Abdul Wahab and a firm of Baldotas had encroached hundreds of acres of land.

Ghorpade is a former minister; Veerabhadrappa a former Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president; Ramulu a former parliamentarian; Wahab a former Bellary district Congress committee head; Jain, a former member of the All India Congress Committee; while Anil Lad is a Rajya Sabha member, and Santosh Lad is a member of the legislative assembly.

G Janardhana Reddy, his brother Revenue Minister G Karunakara Reddy and youngest of the three brothers, G Somashekara Reddy, an Assembly member, are under attack over charges of large-scale land encroachment and illegal iron ore mining.

G Janardhana Reddy, who owns the Obulapuram Mining Company, asserted that his firm was not into mining in Karnataka but only in Andhra Pradesh.

“We are not mining even in one inch of land in Karnataka,” he stated.

Reddy claimed himself to be “pure like 24 carat gold. All our mining activities are legal.” He, however, said he did not favour export of iron ore from the country and supports value addition in the iron and steel sector. “There are so many global steel companies coming to Karnataka to invest in the steel sector. Its our duty to supply them iron ore and we should stop exports,” he said.

Giving details of encroachment of mining area by companies owned and operated by various Congress leaders in the state, Janardhana Reddy said a total of 218.26 hectares of area was encroached by various companies.