Thaindian News

Bangalore, Oct 28 (IANS) In an unprecedented event in India, Karnataka Friday decided to act against 617 officials for corruption and other illegal activities over illegal mining, a scandal that brought down the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) first government in south India.

The Karnataka cabinet met late Friday and accepted the recommendation of the Lokayukta (ombudsman) to take action against these officials for abetting/facilitating massive illegal iron ore mining, Law Minister S. Suresh Kumar said after the meeting.

A total of 617 officials, including three from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), are to face action though the Lokayukta had recommended action against 787 officials.

Most of these officials belong to various departments such as mining, forest, revenue and transport.

Suresh Kumar did not give the details of the action to be taken against these officials.

He said over 180 officials have been served notice on why action should not be taken against them. In the case of others, their identity is being established and in several cases more details are being collected.

The then Lokayukta, N. Santosh Hegde, in his July 27 report had identified many officials only by their designation.

This is perhaps for the first time in the country, rocked in recent years by corruption at high political level, that such a large number of officials face action for corruption and illegal activities.

Hegde had recommended action against 787 officials but the official panel headed by Additional Chief Secretary K. Jairaj, appointed to study the report, has pruned the list to 617 officials.

Hegde’s report led to the fall of the B.S. Yeddyurappa ministry July 31 as his trial for corruption in the mining scam was recommended.

This will also be the first time that action is being planned against hundreds of officials on the recommendation the Lokayukta in the country.

Karnataka is the first state in India to set up the Lokayukta way back in 1986.

There is no similar anti-corruption body at the national level though efforts have been on for decades to set up a Lokpal.

The Indian government and civil society groups are now attacking each other over the form, scope and powers of the watchdog body at the national level.

Many states in India also do not have the anti-corruption body.

Illegal mining scandal has rocked Karnataka since 2006 when H.D. Kumaraswamy of Janata Dal-Secular headed a coalition government with the BJP.

Mining baron and former BJP minister G. Janardhana Reddy, now in Hyderabad jail for illegal mining in Andhra Pradesh, accused Kumaraswamy of taking Rs.150 crore bribe to allow illegal mining.

Kumaraswamy referred to the allegations against him to Hegde.

The scope of Hegde’s probe was enlarged after Yeddyurappa became chief minister in May 2008.

Hegde estimated in his report that Karnataka has suffered a loss of over Rs.16,000 crore because of illegal mining.

Besides recommending trial of Yeddyurappa and action against over 700 officials, he had said Reddy, his elder brother G. Karunakara and their associate B. Sriramulu be dropped from the Yeddyurappa cabinet.

All three lost their ministerial posts when Yeddyurappa himself quit July 31.

Reddy was arrested Sep 5 by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with illegal mining in Andhra Pradesh and is now in Hyderabad’s Chanchalaguda jail.

Yeddyurappa is also in jail in Bangalore but in connection with other corruption cases against him.