Karnataka CM B.S. Yediyurappa Courts Controversy Once Again, This Time Over Forest Ministry

Once bitten twice shy, you바카라�d expect. But Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa ran headlong last week into controversy over바카라�believe it or not바카라�a mining baron. After some of his newly-appointed cabinet ministers grumbled about portfolios allotted to them, the CM reshuffled their departments. In the process, Anand Singh, an MLA and mine owner from Bellary, ended up with the forest ministry. The backlash was quick to follow.

Singh바카라�s election affidavit lists 15 pending criminal cases바카라�11 filed by the Karnataka Lokayukta under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act and the forest protection law, one case by the forest department and three by the CBI. Singh, in his defence, said he has obtained a stay from the Karnataka High Court on the Lokayukta cases. With criticism mounting, he told reporters that he was ready to give up the ministry if the CM wanted him to.

In his previous term as CM a decade ago, Yediyurappa was singed by the Bellary iron-ore mining scam. Given that backdrop, the forest ministry allocation came across as a surprise. Singh was given the food and civil supplies department before the reshuffle. The Congress grabbed the row with both hands바카라�as, until a few months ago, Singh was a Congress MLA, having joined the party ahead of the 2018 assembly elections. He바카라�d quit the Congress last July to rejoin the BJP along with a clutch of MLAs.

The cases against Singh are sub judice, of course, but shouldn바카라�t that have weighed on the minds of those making the appointment, asks former Karnataka Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde who authored the illegal mining report. 바카라�It바카라�s a blatant violation of social morality, according to me,바카라� Hegde says. 바카라�We are talking about correctness vis-a-vis morality, not correctness vis-a-vis law. Morality requires a person who has no conflicting interest to be holding that portfolio.바카라�

By Ajay Sukumaran in Bangalore