Hyderabad, November 12: The three-member official team appointed by chief minister K Rosaiah to probe alleged illegal iron ore mining by Obulapuram Mining Corporation (OMC) began their investigations in Anantapur.
The team was constituted after the opposition led by the TDP charged that the private company owned by Karnataka BJP minister Gali Janardhan Reddy was carrying out illegal mining in Anantapur district and that the state was turning a blind eye to it as late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy’s son and Kadapa MP Jaganmohan Reddy had close business links with the Gali brothers.
The probe team was constituted after the opposition demanded the removal of senior forest officials in Anantapur on charges of conniving with the mining company. The team comprising C Sammi Reddy, Omkar Singh and S B L Mishra, all principal chief forest conservators, has been given 10 days time to submit their report.
The opposition alleged that the OMC had agreed to give 50 per cent of the profits from mining to Red Gold company for arranging licences and clearances from both state and central governments. “This is nothing but siphoning off public money by the OMC to unknown agencies in collusion with authorities concerned,” the parties had alleged.
The OMC has been a ‘burning issue’ for the past three years. It reached a high in July 2007 when the state assembly was rocked over the opposition charge that rules were circumvented to favour OMC. The TDP alleged that when the government issued the notification for mining licences in 2004, it received 25 applications in addition to the five pending applications. The new applications included OMC which asked for over 93 hectares of land. On June 18, 2007, the state issued GO Nos 151 and 152 allotting 68.5 hectares of land as captive mines to OMC, restricting the use of ore only for the proposed steel plant.
The opposition parties claim that the iron ore extracted on a massive scale is being exported in violation of the rules. It has further alleged that OMC had carried out mining in 698 and 699 forest compartments without clearance from the Union ministry of environment and forests. In the process, the historic Sugalamma temple and a ground tracking station (GTS) documented by the Britishers in 1890 were blasted by OMC. It is also alleged that OMC is furnishing different sketches to the Indian Bureau of Mines and AP government to conceal illegal mining.
At present, the opposition claims that 5 lakh tons of iron ore was transported from Karnataka and stocked at Malapanagudi on Survey No 1. Likewise, another 5 lakh metric tons of ore is stocked beneath a hillock of Obulapuram in 140 acres of DK patta land and the OMC has laid railway lines and constructed a railway station on land belonging to SCs without government sanction, the opposition charged.
Meanwhile, tension prevailed at the Anantpur district forest office on Wednesday when TDP activists tried to ransack the building demanding a probe into the violation of rules and regulations by the OMC. When the three-member forest officials team was inspecting the office, activists of Telugu Yuvatha rushed there and raised slogans against the government.
-Agencies