By IANS,
Bangalore : Without naming the mining barons Reddy brothers, Karnataka Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda Wednesday said those indicted for illegal mining will not be made ministers.
“Those indicted in the Lokayukta report on illegal iron ore mining will not be included in the cabinet,” Gowda said answering questions at a meet-the-press programme organised jointly by the Bangalore Reporters Guild and Press Club.
Former Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde, in his voluminous report on illegal mining, had indicted the Reddy brothers – G. Janardhana and G. Karunakara – and their associate B. Sriramulu, who were ministers in the B.S. Yeddyurappa cabinet.
Hegde had recommended that the three should be dropped from the ministry. His report, however, led to the fall of the Yeddyurappa ministry itself.
Yeddyurappa quit July 31 as Hegde recommended his trial for graft in the mining scam.
Janardhana Reddy, who owns the Obulapuram Mining Company and was tourism minister, has been lobbying hard for inclusion of his elder brother G. Karunakara and younger G. Somashekara, an assembly member, and Sriramulu.
Karunakara Reddy has been contending that he has been wrongly named by Hegde though he had severed all links with the Obulapuram Mining Company in 2004.
The BJP’s central leaders have not so far yielded to Janardhana Reddy’s pleas. His efforts to have some of his supporters in the Gowda ministry have also not yielded results.
Gowda can induct seven more ministers into his cabinet whose maximum strength is fixed at 34, including the chief minister.
Gowda defended having included V. Somanna in the ministry saying he has not been indicted by the Lokayukta, though his son has been named in the report.
“I have included him only after taking legal opinion,” he said.
He justified making C.P. Yogeshwar a minister though the state police’s CID has filed a charge-sheet against him for cheating people with the promise of residential plot allotment.
Gowda said charges against Yogeshwar were yet to be proved.
Gowda, who took over on Aug 4, denied that he was a “puppet” of his predecessor Yeddyurappa.
“I am nobody’s puppet. Yeddyurappa, as former chief minister, can give suggestions but I will take the final decision,” he asserted.
“I will not bow to any pressure nor take any decision in a hurry,” he said.