Karnataka Cabinet decides to wind up U L Bhat Commission on Mining

Bangalore, Mar 8 (UNI) The Karnataka Cabinet today decided to wind up the Justice U L Bhat Commission of Inquiry appointed to probe into the alleged irregularities and malpractices in the mining sector in the state and refer the issue to the Lok Ayukta.

Announcing this to newspersons here, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M P Prakash said even as the government was considering a request from the commission to extend the term for another six months, Mr Justice Bhat had resigned. The government felt it was unnecessary to extend the term as only a few people had provided information to the commission and the response from the public was very poor.

Despite being in office for over seven months and deployment of necessary official support including four top police officials of the Inspector General Rank, the commission had not submitted its report. Besides, the opposition party leaders had also criticised the appointment of the commission saying that it had only power to submit a report and not initiate action.

He said the government would now refer the complaint filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party Member of the Legislative Council Janardhana Reddy and the terms of reference made out to the commission to the Lok Ayukta for further action along with a petition related to the encroachment of lands belonging to the forest department.

UNI