H D Kumaraswamy's first salvo: Congress illegally mined Rs 5,450 crore in sandur

BENGALURU: With polls to the Legislative Assembly a couple of months away, the issue of illegal mining which could muddy the image of the Congress government headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was raised by state JD (S) president H D Kumarmaswamy who claimed that unlawful mining to the tune of Rs 5,450 crores was reported in an internal audit report of MML.

The former chief minister told the media here on Saturday that the report pointed out illegal mining between 2014-2017 in two villages, Subrayanahalli and Timmappanagudi in Sandur taluk, Ballari district. Different contractors, S.S. Muchandi, Amti Earth Movers, Vishal Enterprises and South West Mining Ltd entered into agreement with MSIL in November 2014 to mine 30 lakh tonnes.

However, in excess of the permitted level, these companies extracted 60,56,440 tonnes of iron ore. "This has come out as a result of the internal audit done by MML. For long time, the BJP has been accusing me of colluding with companies and the government and not making public documents to substantiate my allegation of illegal iron ore mining in Sandur during the Congress regime. Now, I got these documents to support my allegation, so I have come to the media (with documents," he added.