Expressing his displeasure over contents of the Action Taken Report (ATR) submitted to him, Hegde told reporters that prima facie, the ATR indicates that the Government has acted on all recommendations.
“The ATR does not refer to the execution of the recommendations. To most of the recommendations, the ATR just says, 'the concerned departments /heads have been directed to take steps or look into the matter'. Interestingly, these departments /heads were given directives on February 12, 2009. But what happened from February 12, 2009 to July 13, 2009? To me it is not the ATR, but Action To Be Taken Report!"
The Government's moves on some issues are silly. For, on steps to prevent ill effects of transporting ore on the lives of people, the ATR says that the truck drivers have been asked to sprinkle water on roads before using it and use tarpaulin to cover the ore!
Another instance is mining in forest land. "The ATR says that some people obtained licence giving false information to carry out mining in the forest land. The applications for obtaining licence are being re-examined. Action will be taken against the accused once the Lokayukta submits the next report! The government is expecting me to submit another report recommending action against the accused," lamented Hegde.
Didn’t meet deadline
The Lokayukta had fixed three-month deadline to submit the ATR. The deadline was to expire in March. The Government requested time till June due to general polls. But, the ATR was submitted on July 9.
The Lokayukta had pointed out that sub-leasing of lands obtained under raising contract was illegal, and had recommended action in form of recovery of losses.
"We had given a list of 39 examples. The ATR refers to only one example pertaining to Mysore Minerals Limited (MML).
He said, "We estimated the losses (of MML) to be around of Rs 600 crore. But, the Government estimates the losses to be around Rs 140 crore. Interestingly, the Government has recovered only Rs 45 crore from the private companies and the ATR does not say anything regarding recovery of the remaining amount. For disciplinary action against 10 MML officials, the ATR replies action has been taken against two."
"The honourable Chief Minister wrote a letter to the Central government in December last urging for a joint survey of border area between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
But what happened thereafter? The ATR has no answer," the Lokayukta revealed.
Some truck operators had challenged the Lokayukta recommendation of issuing a card with hologram and computer bar code to prevent illegal transportation. "We recommended to issue one card for one trip. But, some truck operators challenged the recommendation in the High Court. The government has not made any effort to vacate the stay in the HC," Hegde expressed his displeasure.