An IAS officer has gone on leave after he was allegedly humiliated by a few ministers during a cabinet meeting last Friday for refusing to give a ‘favourable opinion’ on granting a mining lease.
Sources in the bureaucracy said secretary (mines) Rajender Kumar Kataria chose to go on leave as he was under tremendous pressure to bend the rules and even chided in front of chief minister Siddaramaiah.
Incidentally, Kataria was handpicked by Siddaramaiah himself to cleanse the scam-tainted mining department. A senior minister, who did not want to be named, told TOI: “During the cabinet meeting, a few ministers were angry with Kataria as he was playing by the rulebook instead of understanding political compulsions.”
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The bone of contention was a cabinet file pertaining to re-execution of grey granite quarrying lease on nine acres of land in survey number 12 of Muddakanahalli, Sira taluk, Tumakuru district in favor of M/s Muddakkanahalli Stone Cutters Co-operative Society Ltd, which has members from Bhovi community.
The quarrying lease was granted in 1997 and a request for renewal for another five years had been made in 1999. But on March 18, 2015, the government renewed the lease for 20 years with effect from 2000 and issued a directive stating that the lease should be registered within 90 days.
Kataria rejected the proposal for registration of the non-existent lease as it would lead to legal wrangles. The finance department had endorsed his view and suggested not re-executing the renewal. But the political bosses weren’t in a mood to listen to Kataria.
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