Hyderabad, August 07: About 80 members belonging to TDP, TRS, CPI and CPM members were suspended from the House for a day as they tried to stall the proceedings by insisting on constituting a House committee to probe the alleged illegal mining by the Obulapuram Mining Company in Anantapur district. But Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy refused to concede the demand, maintaining that there was nothing fishy in the operations of the company.
The Praja Rajyam party also demanded a House committee but it confined to registering a protest on the Government’s rejection to appoint a House committee. The Lok Satta party wanted a legislation on the royalty issue pertaining to mining of minerals in the State.
The House could not take up the day’s business for about four hours.
Finance Minister K Rosaiah was able to give a reply to the general discussion on the budget only after the suspensions. The opposition members later staged a dharna near the Gun Park.
A question from the Telugu Desam party about the illegal mining in the Obulapuram of Anantapur district sparked off the ruckus. The TD legislators P Raghunatha Reddy, BK Parthasaradhi and Abdul Ghani wanted to know from the Government whether illegal mining was going on in Obulapuram. For this Mining Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy replied in the negative.
The contention of the Opposition parties was that illegal mining of iron ore was taking place in violation of norms in Anantapur district bordering Karnataka. The mine owners earned crores rupees by exporting the iron ore and in the process the Government lost royalty to the tune of crores, they contended.
Raising supplementary questions, TD member Nagam Janardhan Reddy stated that the Obulapuram Mining Company was illegally carrying out mining operations without environmental clearances.
The minister clarified that the mining operations were being done according to the directives of the High Court.
Intervening in the debate, Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy recalled the members of all party delegation (except those of the TDP) saying that no irregulariteis took place in mining after making a field level visit and therefore there was no need now for the constitution of a House Committee.
Differing with the Chief Minister’s contention, Opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu wanted to know why the Government did not implement the Union Forest and Environment ministry’s directions that mining should be suspended immediately.
Quoting a report from a news magazine, he alleged that the Chief Minister had stakes in the Obulapuram company. Naidu stated that the company was shipping about 4,000 trucks loads of iron ore every day and there was revenue loss of about Rs 1,500 crore every year.
But the Chief Minister refuted the allegations and said that the State Government had given reply to the Centre and there were no orders for suspension of mining activity.
He wanted to know from Naidu why was he interested in a dispute between two mining companies.
However, not satisfied with the reply, the TD, TRS, CPI and CPM demanded constitution of House committee and raised slogans.
Deputy Speaker N Manohar and Speaker N Kiran Kumar Reddy tried to pacify the Opposition members by adjourning the House twice.
As the uproar continued till 12.30 p.m., the Speaker suspended the members from the House for a day.
Later the suspended members staged a dharna at Gun Park. Chandrababu Naidu demanded the Government to nationalise all mineral sources in the country.
–Agencies–