Ramanagara, 30 Oct

Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Wednesday alleged that the Karnataka Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre trespassed on the land belonging to HMT, a central public sector enterprise, under the Ministry of Heavy Industries. Khandre on Tuesday directed officials concerned to take disciplinary action against those who permitted felling of trees in a forest land here, where a set was erected for shooting a Kannada movie 'Toxic'.

He also conducted a spot inspection of the site. “We will fight it legally but we will not raise the issue for publicity,” Kumaraswamy, the Union Steel and Heavy Industries Minister, told reporters.

In a note to Additional Chief Secretary of Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment on Tuesday, Khandre said a total of 599 acres of reserve forest in Bengaluru's Peenya plantation-1 and plantation-2 is gazetted, which was illegally handed over to HMT in the 1960s without de-notification. He said he would hold a press conference in a day or two against the Forest Minister’s "attempt" to create confusion ‘unnecessarily’ in connection with the HMT land. -PTI