Karnataka Church welcomes arrests of mining magnates

(September 08, 2011) Church leaders in Karnataka welcomed the arrest of two mining magnates on Tuesday on fraud and corruption charges and for illegal mining in the state. Gali Janardhana Reddy and his brother-in-law Srinivas Reddy have long been accused of operating a multi-million dollar iron ore extraction empire in Karnataka and in neighbouring states. Authorities also seized 45 million rupees (nearly US$1 million) and 30 kg of gold in raids on their homes. A special court in Hyderabad, capital of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state, later remanded them in police custody for 14-days. Gali Janardhana Reddy was Karnataka’s tourism minister until recently. Srinivas Reddy, is managing director of the Obulapuram Mining Company in which Gali Janardhana Reddy is a majority shareholder. “People in Bellary live at the mercy of a parallel government comprising of mining barons” who ride roughshod over people who can’t fight back, said Father Faustine Lobo, spokesperson of the Karnataka Catholic Bishops’ Council. The priest said that the Church condemns illegal mining and wants the guilty punished as an example. Fr Lobo alleged the Reddy brothers and their associates had flouted laws and manipulated records to get a mining license valid until 2006 extended until 2017. The Reddys are prominent leaders of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party that has ruled Karnataka since May 2008. The Church said some its land is currently at the centre of a legal dispute between the Church and another mining company believed to be owned by the Reddys. Ranka International Private Limited began illegally mining on Church land in January 2010. A campaign later forced the government to halt the mining.