Not afraid of any probe into phone tapping: Kumaraswamy
Bengaluru, Aug 19: Former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Monday said he was not afraid of any probe into the phone tapping allegations, as he accused the BJP government of running a "transfer business" in the State.
The JDS leader's statement triggered a war of words with chief minister B Yeddiyurappa's son B Y Vijayendra saying it was not appropriate to make "baseless allegations."
Yediyurappa, however, said he was not going to react to the charges.
"Why do you want to put words in my mouth? May God bless him. The whole world knows what he has done..," he told reporters.
It all started with Kumaraswamy's purported statement on Sunday that Yediyurappa had left his sons to run the 'transfer businesses' as reported by some news channels.
Taking a serious note of it, Vijayendra tweeted the clipping of Kumaraswamy's statement as it appeared in a Kannada news channel, which read that Yediyurappa has "let his son loose to run the transfer business."
"...You cannot pass the buck on somebody else for your deeds. Stop trying to mislead the people through falsehood just because you are scared of the CBI probe into the telephone tapping case," he said.
Vijayendra also tweeted links to news reports that claimed the then PWD minister H D Revanna had transferred 700 officials on a single day last year when Kumaraswamy was the chief minister.
Later, speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Vijayendra slammed Kumaraswamy for making "baseless allegations" against him and his family.
"It is not appropriate to make baseless allegations against me and our family. It does not befit his stature," Vijayendra said.
He challenged Kumaraswamy to make the facts public if he has evidence to back his claim.
"People have seen how during your tenure governance had collapsed due to the involvement of your family. People of the state have seen how 700 staff in the PWD were given promotion and transferred," Vijayendra said.
Reacting, Kumarasawmy cautioned chief minister Yediyurappa to keep his children "within their limits."
He alleged that the chief ministers residence has turned into a "transfer market" these days.
Speaking about the governments intention to conduct a CBI probe into the alleged phone tapping, Kumaraswamy said he was not scared of any probe because he did not do anything wrong.
However, he asked the chief minister not to fix innocent people only to take revenge on him.
Days after phone tapping allegations during the previous Congress-JDS coalition government surfaced, Yediyurappa on Sunday said he will order a CBI probe citing demands by several political leaders including from the Congress.
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Two workers trapped after wall of opencast coal mine collapses in Jharkhand
Hazaribag (PTI): Two workers have been trapped after the wall of an opencast mine collapsed on a truck in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh district, police said on Sunday.
The accident occurred around 11 pm on Saturday in the command area of Central Coalfield Limited (CCL) under the Urimari Police Station limits when the highwall of the mine caved in on the coal-loading vehicle, a senior officer said.
A highwall in mining is the face of exposed overburden and coal in a mine, and its stability is important for safety of miners and equipment, experts said.
The trapped coal workers, who were on the truck when the accident occurred, were identified as Sunil Yadav (30) and Raju Paswan (50), Barkagaon sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Pawan Kumar said.
"A rescue operation is underway for the two workers. Another person has already been rescued from the accident site and admitted to a hospital here," he added.
The trapped workers could not be rescued on Saturday night due to darkness, fog and a protest by coal workers there, the SDPO said.
The labourers at the opencast mine stopped their coal extraction activities after the accident, he added.
