Hubballi: Samaj Parivarthana Samudaya founder president S.R. Hiremath, who had waged a war against rampant loot of natural resources by former minister Janardhan Reddy, said the government has failed to probe big scams involving the mining baron.
Addressing the media here on Friday, he said it is ridiculous for the government to run after his small scandal of receiving a bribe of '18 crore to bail out Ambidant.
He attacked the Centre for its failure to initiate action against illegal mining activities. He alleged that Siddaramaiah had also supported these mining scandals during his tenure as CM.
“Reddy has engaged in daylight robbery of rich mineral resources. CCB police officials are probing the case of 57 kg gold bars allegedly received by him instead of unearthing his big scams," Hiremath said.
Expressing displeasure against the functioning of Karnataka Lokayukta P. Vishwanath Shetty, Hiremath appealed to him to take and quick action against such mining barons.
He said Reddy owns wealth to the tune of Rs 35-40,000 crore as declared by him and no government has taken action against him despite former minister and chairman of the Cabinet sub-committee on mining H.K. Patil submitting a report that there was a loss of '1 lakh crore to the exchequer due to illegal mining.
