External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has strongly refuted allegations that he had taken a decision to de-reserve forest lands for mining activities throwing all rules to winds when he was the Chief Minister of Karnataka.
In a strongly worded letter to Anna Hazare, who is staging a fast-unto-death agitation in New Delhi demanding that a strong Lok Pal Bill be enacted, Krishna denied all the charges leveled against him made by the members of Team Anna.
In the 23-page reply Krishna termed the charges that forest areas have been de-reserved as “a traversy of truth”. “I would like to reiterate that let alone recommending any case from the de-reserved category of mineral bearing areas, not even the preliminary hearing under rule 26(1) of Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 was taken up for consideration during my tenure as CM,” Krishna has said in his letter to Anna.
Referring to a letter served from his officer on special duty (OSD) to the MD of the Mysore Minerals Limited appealing to take suitable action on the application filed by M/s Canmarc Engineering Company, Krishna has said that “there is nothing wrong if the CM’s office makes a reference of such a case to the concerned (department/Undertaking) for appropriate action. It would be totally erroneous, farfetched and prejudiced to conclude that his OSD’s letter meant his instruction to carry out the recommendations, he said.
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