Mangalore : It appears that Ports and DK Minister Krishna Palemar is in the vortex of infamy, after he unwittingly collided with Lokayukta Justice N. Santhosh Hegde in the case of illegal iron ore for export, seized by Dy. CF R. Gokul who was suspended the other day on the advice of Palemar to chief secretary of Karnataka. A thousand sand bags were seized by Mangalore Tahsildar and Dy Director of Mines and Geology last week from the premises of a college on Lady Hill, managed by Palemar, with sand belonging to a builder Mayya. Now in Surathkal Congress Committee, former MLA Vijayakumar Shetty, waiting for an opportunity as his rival, pounced upon Palemar to criticize him regarding unaccounted sand piles in a college of physiotherapy, on July 19 noon in DKCC office.

VK Shetty addressing Congressmen and press persons in a Press Meet, told that after Palemar took charge of DK dt, many unpleasant incidents had taken place. Sand is illegally mined and transported to Kerala to fetch higher prices. When DC V. Ponnuraj was pressed upon to detect these clandestine transports of sand to Kerala and other states for more income, DC refused to get involved in the matter in view of criminals handling sand transportation Shetty deprecated the tendency of creating a sand transport lobby, on the lines of iron ore Mafia  to come into existence. Local people will not hesitate to act against the BJP Minister for Ecology, Shetty said.

If the transportation of sand was officially permitted, why state officers would impound it in Vikas College, VK Shetty asked. If transportation was done on a permit, whose name was on it? Who holds the trip sheet? Who is paying the Royalty on sand mining? Let Palemar answer to such questions being raised on the issue, VK Shetty demanded.
M.G. Hegde, a Congress leader, speaking on the matter, told the press, that since the Lokayukta has been informed about the sand seizure, he will definitely make an enquiry into the matter fully and book the guilty.

P.V. Mohan, MU Syndicate member, taunted Palemar that instead of looking after the state interests as DK Minister, he had started a trade in sand, so he should resign as a Minister.
KPCC general secretary Badruddin, Deepak Tripathi Patil, Youth Congress chief Arun Coelho, North Zone chief Suresh Ballal, former mayor Sashidhar Hegde, Vishwas Das among others attended the Press Meet.
KPCC general secretary VK Shetty also issued a detailed statement demanding action against sand Mafia.