Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, May 26: By transferring Dr U V Singh, senior Indian Forest Service officer who has been functioning in the Lokayukta team that has been investigating the mining scam, the government has earned the ire of the Lokayukta. Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde, irked by the fact that the government did not obtain his prior concurrence before effecting the transfer, brought the same to the notice of senior government officers.

U V Singh, a 1985 batch IFS officer, who has been functioning as forest conservator in the Bangalore Lake Development Authority, has been promoted as the chief forest conservator and posted as the registrar of Tumkur University, through an order dated May 23.

Singh, who had also functioned in the team that investigated post-2000 mining scam earlier, had reported that Obalapuram Mining Company, with which the state ministers are involved, had illegally conducting mining in the land located within Karnataka border, even though it holds mining lease in Andhra Pradesh alone. Based on this finding, a person named T Narayan Reddy from Bellary had filed a petition in the High Court. The divisional bench of the High Court had ordered for a joint survey of the inter-state border to conclusively arrive at a decision.

Attempts had earlier also been made to separate him from the Lokayukta investigating team. Once he was ordered not to go out of the city while on another occasion, he was transferred as the chief executive officer of Uttara Kannada zilla panchayat. As the Lokayukta expressed his displeasure then, these transfers had to be cancelled.

A senior officer of the chief minister's secretariat said Singh was transferred because of lack of information. In view of subsequent developments, he will be retained at the current place of posting, he confirmed.