BANGALORE: Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday turned the tables on the Congress leaders on the Bellary mining issue charging his predecessor N. Dharam Singh with allowing his "friends" to get mining permits when he was heading the Government.

The Chief Minister was speaking to presspersons immediately after the Speaker Krishna adjourned the House for the day following a dharna by the Congress and the All India Progressive Janata Dal (AIPJD) members demanding that the former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramiah be permitted to make a statement before resigning from the House.

Mr. Kumaraswamy, who charged the Opposition with deliberately depriving him of the opportunity to reply to the debate on the Rs. 150-crore bribery charge by staging a dharna, alleged that the intention was to cover up the favours shown during the tenure of Mr. Dharam Singh.

Mr. Kumaraswamy said under the rules, only the Secretary to Government, Department of Mines and Geology, should chair the meeting to decide on the applications for issuing mining permits. But his predecessor himself chaired the meeting and favoured his political friends and followers. Referring to the briber charge, Mr. Kumaraswamy wondered how much money Mr. Singh might have made, assuming that he himself had made Rs. 150 crore in four months. He had neither heard of any application for permits nor permitted any new mining activity anywhere in the State.

Mr. Dharam Singh had chaired and sanctioned permits in spite of the Opposition from the Finance Minister and added that he wanted to place all these and much more information before the people through the legislature, but he was prevented from replying.

Terming the continued dharna as an act of cowardice, he said he had heard the arguments of the Opposition leaders without obstructing them, but they did not reciprocate it.

The mining royalty collected was only Rs. 20 lakh till January this year, but in February after he took over, it shot up to Rs. 50 lakh which showed how much revenue had been allowed to be pilfered.

The Chief Minister said the Opposition was interested in that inane issue of Mr. Siddaramaiah's statement rather than the Government's reply on a serious matter of bribery charge.

Asked about the mining irregularities at Kanakapura and Sathanur forests in Bangalore Rural District, the Chief Minister said a large area of forestland had come under illegal mining.

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