Once bitten twice shy, you바카라d expect. But Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa ran headlong last week into controversy over바카라believe it or not바카라a 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.
Singh바카라s election affidavit lists 15 pending criminal cases바카라11 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 hands바카라as, until a few months ago, Singh was a Congress MLA, having joined the party ahead of the 2018 assembly elections. He바카라d 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 shouldn바카라t that have weighed on the minds of those making the appointment, asks former Karnataka Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde who authored the illegal mining report. 바카라It바카라s a blatant violation of social morality, according to me,바카라 Hegde says. 바카라We 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
