After TD, BJP to face the heat on the bauxite mining issue in Agency
Police personnel intervene the AIYF activists near Alluri Seetaramaraju statue on Friday, as they stage protest against the proposed bauxite mining in the Visakhapatnam Agency. (Photo: DC)
Visakhapatnam: After Telugu Desam it is the turn of another ruling party, BJP, to face the heat on the bauxite mining issue in Vizag Agency. BJP leaders belonging to various Vizag Agency mandals, held a meeting in Paderu on Friday on bauxite mining and asked the state leaders to clarify their stand. They said, if the state party leaders fail to exert pressure on the Union government to cancel the stage II clearances given by, MoEF, they would quit the party.
They wrote letters to Vizag MP, party state president, Kambhampati Haribabu and other state BJP leaders asking them to exert pressure on the Centre. “How can we sit quiet when everyone in the Agency, irrespective of party and groups are united against proposed bauxite mining, which threatens our livelihood. Our state leaders should understand this and mount pressure on the Centre to cancel the MoEF’s stage II clearances given for bauxite mining. If they fail to do so we are all ready to quit the party. We don’t have another option,” said BJP Paderu division leader, Kurasala U. Maheswar Rao.
Another BJP leader said that, TD leaders were blaming the BJP for the current fiasco by spreading the message that, based on the Centre’s clearances the state government had issued the GO diverting forest land for mining. BJP and affiliated organizations like Yuva Morcha have committees in all the 11 Agency mandals.
Balaraju demands scrapping of GO:
Former minister P. Balaraju and social activist, Congress leader, Bolisetty Satyanarayana, demanded immediate scrapping of the GO issued last week diverting forest land in Vizag Agency in favour of APMDC to take up bauxite mining. Talking to reporters on Friday, they said that it was sheer subversion of the constitution by TD government, which issued GO MS No. 97 clearing 1,212 hectares of forest land to APMDC and trying to give tribal lands to Anrak and other corporate companies.
Mr Balaraju also came down heavily on HRD minister Ganta Srinivas Rao for planning to hold Araku Utsav in Vizag Agency when all the tribals are seething with anger over the GO. “This is not permitted as per the constitutional scheme and any such action will be treated null and void. On September 28, 2012, Mr Kishore Deo had directed his own party’s government headed by Kiran Kumar Reddy in AP to cancel all the licences granted to various lease holders including APMDC. Further it is pertinent to note that as per the Mining Act 1952 of AP, mining in scheduled areas can be done only by cooperatives owned and controlled by tribals of that area only,” Mr Satyanarayana told reporters.
Subsequently, a sub-Cabinet committee headed by Mr Manmohan Singh with seven of his Cabinet ministers along with their secretaries met and ratified the decision of cancellation of mining licenses taken by Mr Kishore Deo, that’s how the Congress government stopped mining in Schedule V areas, against their own party’s government is in the state of AP, he added.
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( Source : deccan chronicle )
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