The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Media blamed for not presenting full picture of mining controversy

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 26, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Media blamed for not presenting full picture of mining controversy

Staff Reporter

`Newspapers failed in asking Janardhan Reddy to produce proof for the allegations' `Newspapers failed in asking Janardhan Reddy to produce evidence for the bribery allegations he has made'

Bangalore: The media has failed to present a comprehensive picture of the mining controversy, said former Minister B.K. Chandrashekar at a panel discussion on media coverage of the issue here on Monday.

"The Chief Minister has written a letter to Prime Minister but has the Government done what it can? Can we not amend our own forest Bill? Why do we have to shift the responsibility?" he asked.

The media gave wide publicity to H.D. Kumaraswamy's response to the bribery allegation but no one questioned the irrelevance of the Chief Minister's statement that the previous Government had de-reserved forest areas, he said. The issue at hand was that Mr. Kumaraswamy had taken a bribe and not about who de-reserved forest land, Prof. Chandrashekar said.

Y.S.V. Datta, MLC, said some sections of the media had highlighted the BJP MLC Janardhan Reddy as a hero fighting against corruption. But the fact was that the bribery allegation came only after Mr. Reddy's demand to transfer 12 officers of Bellary district was not fulfilled, he claimed.

"Mr. Reddy had a whole list of officers, from range officers in the Forest Department to assistant commissioners in the Police Department, that he wanted transferred," he alleged.

While claiming that newspapers had covered the issue considerably well, Mr. Datta said that they had failed in asking Mr. Reddy to produce substantial proof in support of his allegations.

Asking the media to throw light on mine owners, their money power and political control, he claimed that Mr. Reddy's allegations had been made for personal gains. A participant said during his research he had found that there were not enough police check posts to deal with illegal mining.

"Only on July 14 this year, the police set up five check posts in Bellary district," he said.

Infrastructure in the villages of the district had deteriorated as gram panchayats had not been given enough to spend from the revenue earned from mining, he said.

Another participant claimed that the media was highlighting the issue well but the administration continued to be irresponsible and had not taken any action.

Mr. Datta said that his party position was that illegal mining should be completely stopped and the Government should take control over authorised mines. They could be handed over to Mysore Minerals Limited or Mines and Minerals Trading Corporation, he said.

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