Santhosh Lad
Bengaluru: Dismissing
allegations of his involvement in illegal mining of iron ore,
infrastructure and information minister, Santhosh Lad, on Thursday said
documents are being leaked selective as part of a politically motivated
campaign.
“Hiremath (president of Samaj Parivartan Samudaya) is making three allegations against me. All I want him to do is place all the documents in front of the media instead of selectively leaking those (documents) which are convenient to him. If all the documents are made public, one will realise that it is politically motivated,” he told Deccan Chronicle in an interview.
In response to Hiremath’s allegations, Lad said based on satellite imageries, the Lokayukta filed a FIR against 56 companies, including a state-owned company.
When all these companies appealed in the high court, the court directed that boundaries be fixed through a joint survey and permitted VS Lad & Sons to continue mining in undisputed areas. The survey, however, was not carried till date, he added. Besides, Lad said his company was not involved in illegal transportation of iron ore.
An officer, who was under pressure to register cases against Congress leaders following their padayatra from Bengaluru to Bellary, filed a FIR against VS Lad Sons. The officer in question, range forest officer (RFO) Mahesh Patil, was arrested by sleuths of CBI for facilitating illegal mining.
The minister said VS Lad & Sons was listed in “C” category of mining leases by the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) merely on grounds of encroachment by a dump of ore and not for encroachment of a mining pit.
“As a matter of fact, the CEC itself has placed the matter of upgrading the lease of Messrs VS Lad & Sons from Category ‘C’ to Category ‘B’ before the court in view of marginal percentage (encroachment of 0.17%), which was due to the least count error of the instrument used by joint survey team,” Lad said, adding “If some one keeps talking that cases were filed against the company, the cases have progressed a long way. If they place the latest position on each allegation, the real facts will be out in public.”
“Hiremath (president of Samaj Parivartan Samudaya) is making three allegations against me. All I want him to do is place all the documents in front of the media instead of selectively leaking those (documents) which are convenient to him. If all the documents are made public, one will realise that it is politically motivated,” he told Deccan Chronicle in an interview.
In response to Hiremath’s allegations, Lad said based on satellite imageries, the Lokayukta filed a FIR against 56 companies, including a state-owned company.
When all these companies appealed in the high court, the court directed that boundaries be fixed through a joint survey and permitted VS Lad & Sons to continue mining in undisputed areas. The survey, however, was not carried till date, he added. Besides, Lad said his company was not involved in illegal transportation of iron ore.
An officer, who was under pressure to register cases against Congress leaders following their padayatra from Bengaluru to Bellary, filed a FIR against VS Lad Sons. The officer in question, range forest officer (RFO) Mahesh Patil, was arrested by sleuths of CBI for facilitating illegal mining.
The minister said VS Lad & Sons was listed in “C” category of mining leases by the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) merely on grounds of encroachment by a dump of ore and not for encroachment of a mining pit.
“As a matter of fact, the CEC itself has placed the matter of upgrading the lease of Messrs VS Lad & Sons from Category ‘C’ to Category ‘B’ before the court in view of marginal percentage (encroachment of 0.17%), which was due to the least count error of the instrument used by joint survey team,” Lad said, adding “If some one keeps talking that cases were filed against the company, the cases have progressed a long way. If they place the latest position on each allegation, the real facts will be out in public.”
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