Naidu ‘unhappy’ at State Government’s slow pace of tackling of ‘illegal mining’ by OMC

Hyderabad,Nov 11:The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president and former chief minister, Mr N Chandrababu Naidu, on Wednesday expressed deep displeasure over the “indifferent” attitude of the State Government in tackling with the Obulapuram Mines and demanded constitution of a multi-disciplinary enquiry team to probe the issue.In a lengthy and strongly-worded letter addressed to the Chief Minister, Mr K Rosaiah, the TDP supremo said that despite repeated representations by the party, the State Government response towards irregular mining by the Obulapuram Mining Company is quite unsatisfactory.

The spate of notices issued by the Divisional Forest Officer, Ananthapur clearly highlighted the magnitude of the scandal and violation of all statutes of Central and State Governments by the OMC, Mr Naidu added.When a scandal involving loss of over Rs10,000 crore to the public property is unearthed,appointing a three-man team with Forest Department officers do not serve any purpose, he felt.It is public knowledge that OMC has committed these irregularities with the active support from both Mining and Forest Departments of the State Government.The fact that after issue of notices by the DFO Ananthapur,OMC is permitted to take away 10 lakh tons of iron ore illegally stored at Malapanagudi and Obulapuram which proves the involvement of these departments,Mr Naidu observed.

On top of it, it is highly irresponsible on the part of the Minister for Mines, Mr B.Srinivasa Reddy, and the Union Minister of State for Steel,Mr K. Sai Pratap, to publicly certify that the OMC has not committed any irregularities, he said in the letter. It is ironic that they made these statements in the premises of the state secretariat just after an enquiry is ordered by the Chief Minister, which clearly reflects the collusion at the highest level and attempts to white wash the whole affair belittling it as a dispute between two companies, he remarked.