K’taka: Congress for President’s Rule

Jul 18, 2010 - Age Correspondent |

New Delhi

The Karnataka unit of the Congress demanded the imposition of President’s Rule in the state invoking the use of Article 356, if the chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa did not tender his resignation over the “illegal mining” issue.

A delegation of congress functionaries comprising AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka Ghulam Nabi Azad, PCC chief R.V. Deshpande, CLP leader Siddharamaiah and Union ministers Mallikarjun Kharge, K.H. Muniyappa and another AICC general secretary B.K. Hariprasad called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, home minister P. Chidambaram and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. They submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in which, apart from demanding the imposition of the President’s Rule, they also have demanded a CBI probe into the illegal mining issue. “Law and order has collapsed in the state. There is no rule of law. Our party was agitating against the on-going illegal mining in the state for last two and half years and it is for the first time that the chief minister had to accept the existence of illegal mining on the floor of the Assembly,” Mr Deshpande said. He added they took up the issue with the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the Union ministers of finance and home.
The leader of the CLP Mr Siddharamaiah said, there was no need to take the concurrence of the state government to order a CBI probe as the issue has inter-state ramifications. To butress his argument, he added that the Reddy brothers had licences for mining only in Andhra Pradesh and in Karnataka they were resorting to illegal mining. He accused the Reddy brothers of owning mining companies in Singapore, Dubai and Indonesia. Mr Siddharamaiah accused the Reddys of having violated all the laws under Foreign Exchange Management Act and Customs and Excise Act. And therefore, it was a fit case for a CBI probe, he argued. Quoting from the Assembly records, he pointed to the statements of chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.

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