Heat on mine scam accused

BANGALORE: The state Cabinet, which met here on Friday, has accepted the recommendations of a four-member committee headed by Additional Chief Secretary K Jairaj constituted to study the Lokayukta report on illegal mining involving state officials, in toto and has decided to implement them.Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, Higher Education Minister V S Acharya and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sureshkumar said, “The matter came up before the Cabinet and after discussions, it was decided to accept the Jairaj Committee recommendations.”Acharya said the committee recommended constituting a Special Investigative Team (SIT) to nail all those involved in illegal mining, transportation and parking of black money generated out of it besides appointing a high-level team headed by the Chief Secretary to monitor the implementation.The committee had identified 182 officials among the 617 named in the Lokayukta report and there was ambiguity about the involvement of 447 officials.The committee recommended action against three IAS officers, Gangaram Baderia, K S Prabhakar and M V Shivalinga Murthy, all former directors, department of Mines and Geology, after obtaining their remarks on their alleged involvement.The IFS officers named by the Lokayukta are Muthaiah, Sreenivasulu, P Rajashekhar and M K Shukla.“The committee has found lapses on the part of Muthaiah, who has allegedly caused a loss of Rs 13.53 crore to the exchequer besides showing undue favour and abuse of power,” he said.Panel’s Other Recommendations● Strengthen departments associated with mining activities including Revenue, Mining, Forests, Ports and Transportation to prevent the menace and guard against degradation of forests and environment, evasion of taxes and illegal transportation of iron-ore.● Recover losses.● Plug loopholes, strengthen staff in enforcement wing of departments like Forests, Environment, Geology and Ports and Transport.