BANGALORE: Opposition members stuck to their demand in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday for an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the bribery charge against Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and Forest Minister C. Chennigappa.

It was the senior Congress member R.V. Deshpande who demanded that illegal mining on government or private land be stopped first and a CBI inquiry be ordered. The Government was incurring huge losses on account of illegal mining in different parts of the State. To uphold the dignity of the Chief Minister's office, Mr. Kumaraswamy must resign, he said.

Ramesh Kumar (Congress) suggested to the Government to take an all-party delegation to the Centre to constitute a joint team to conduct a survey of illegal mining. The Government had pleaded ignorance about illegal mining and Mr. Chennigappa had not initiated any steps to register cases against those responsible for it. The House and the public had every right to know the extent being illegally mined.

G.V. Srirama Reddy (CPI-M) said the BJP MLC Janardhan Reddy had not withdrawn his allegation and Minister for Tourism B. Sriramulu had supported him. The allegation should be gone into by the CBI alone.

K. Jayaprakash Hegde (independent) and C.S. Putte Gowda and H.D. Vishwanath (JD-S) spoke about the damage caused to roads by heavy vehicles transporting iron ore.

Mr. Putte Gowda said corruption was rampant at all levels of the administration, and business leaders routinely bribed politicians to get work done.

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