Anantapur: Minister for mines and child welfare Pethala Sujatha assured to initiate steps to reopen Ramagiri gold mines located near Ramagiri in the district. The gold mines were locked out a few years ago following the poor production of gold and incurring losses to the government. The minister had visited gold mines at Ramagiri on Tuesday accompanied by civil supplies minister Paritala Sunitha, who asked the minister to reopen the mines in her native mandal headquarters Ramagiri.
Ms Sujatha had interacted with former workers and officials over the present situation and assessed the outcome of gold percentage if mining takes out in Ramagiri mines. During interaction, the workers said nearly 3,000 mining workers had lost jobs after the mines closed 10 years ago. About 12.5 per cent of gold could be extracted by digging 35 tons of soil in the Ramagiri, the workers briefed to the minister.
Ms Sujatha assured that she would initiate steps after representing the Chief Minister and with the Centre. Referring to the need to restart mining activities, the minister said the Chief Minister was positive towards developmental activities at all parts of state to overcome from adverse impact of state division.
Later, ministers Sujatha and Sunitha took part in the Pollam Badi programme at Ramagiri and interacted with the tomato farmers. Zilla parishad chairman D.Chaman Saheb, MLC Mettu Govinda Reddy,
collector Solomen Arogya Raj and joint collector S.Satyanarayana accompanied the ministers.
