Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah
In what might bring fresh trouble to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, a petition has been submitted to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot seeking sanction for prosecution for a decision taken in his earlier tenure to provide “deemed extension” for C category mines to eight mining companies in alleged violation of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 2015.
The Chief Minister, however, refuting all charges, late on Wednesday said a ten-year-old case was being brought up “to create confusion for political gains”.
Seeking prosecution sanction, petitioner H. Ramamurthy has pointed out that XXI Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge and Principal Special Judge for CBI cases, Bengaluru, had on November 24, 2017, given him the liberty to approach the appropriate forum, and that he was filing a formal complaint with the Lokayukta now.
Meanwhile, appealing to people not to believe the “political conspiracy”, Mr. Siddaramaiah termed the development as “a baseless issue being fed to pollute the minds of people”. He also said certain “evil powers” have been attempting to mislead the Raj Bhavan since he took oath.
‘Deemed extension’
The petition dated April 1, 2025, sought sanction for prosecution under Sections 17A and 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Mr. Ramamurthy has alleged that the decision of “deemed extension” instead of auction process under the MMDR Act, 2015, resulted in a revenue loss of about ₹5,000 crore to the exchequer and a kickback of about ₹500 crore.
The petitioner said the approval came despite outstanding royalty and dues by the companies, and 108 applications seeking extension; and the government selectively approved only eight.
However, the Chief Minister dismissed the allegations stating that neither has there been any loss to the exchequer nor iron ore had been mined in the area.
“The government provided a conditional extension to the companies to secure forest clearances as per the MMDR Act, 1957. However, after the Centre amended the MMDR Act in January 2015 through an ordinance, directions were given to cancel the conditional extension given to eight companies.”
He said later the deemed extension of one company was cancelled based on a Supreme Court order while the conditional deemed extension was given to seven companies based on the final report of CBI, SIT and other agencies. Of the seven companies, the deemed extension was cancelled for two, for not providing documents.
Among the remaining five, the BJP government gave mining rights to three companies during 2020-21 while mining rights were given to two companies during 2016 and 2018.
“The issue has been raised in the legislature in the past and current Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel H.D. Kumaraswamy held a press conference in January 2018. Cases that had been filed by opposition leaders and some individuals haven closed on the grounds that they were baseless.”
May seek clarification
Meanwhile, government sources said they were expecting the Governor to seek clarifications and documents from the Chief Secretary on lines similar to that of what he did in the alleged scam in the allotment of an alternative site by Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) to B.M. Parvathi, wife of Mr. Siddaramaiah. The Governor had accorded prosecution sanction in the MUDA case in August 2024. Raj Bhavan sources said the Governor has not taken any decision yet on the mining case.
Published – April 09, 2025 11:24 pm IST
