Author: Special Correspondent
Publication: The Hindu
Date: May 31, 2011
URL: http://www.hindu.com/2011/05/31/stories/2011053163270700.htm
'They will not be dropped till charges are
proved'
Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Monday
said the Reddy brothers from Bellary - G. Janardhan Reddy and G. Karunakara
Reddy - would not be dropped from the Cabinet till their role in illegal mining
was proved.
Speaking at a meet organised by the Press
Club of Bangalore and the Reporters' Guild here to mark the completion of
three years in office of the BJP Government, Mr. Yeddyurappa said that it
was his decision, which he took in consultation with party senior leaders,
to appoint the Reddy brothers as Ministers.
'Only allegations'
"Allegations against them [Reddy brothers]
have not been proved," he said and ruled out dropping them from the Cabinet.
The Reddy brothers are accused of large-scale
illegal mining in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
'Sushma had no hand'
Replying to a question, Mr. Yeddyurappa defended
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj's statement that she
had no hand in the induction of the Reddy brothers in the Cabinet.
"Ms. Swaraj is our all-India leader.
What she says is correct," he said.
"I inducted them in the Ministry after
consulting senior leaders," the Chief Minister said.
Mr. Yeddyurappa, however, did not name the
Central leaders whom he consulted when he formed the Ministry in May 2008.
Ms. Swaraj created a flutter in the party
when she was quoted in a New Delhi magazine as saying that she was opposed
to the induction of Reddy brothers in the Ministry.
She said that senior party leaders Arun Jaitley
and M. Venkaiah Naidu were looking after Karnataka affairs when the party
formed the Ministry in the State three years ago.
'She's our mother'
Bellary Staff Correspondent reports:
"We consider Ms. Swaraj as our mother
and goddess and we are not pained by her reported statements," said B.
Sriramulu, Minister for Health, who is close to the Reddy brothers, reacting
to the reported statements of the senior BJP leader.
This is the first reaction of one of the Ministers
from Bellary district on the controversy over Ms. Swaraj's statement.
