Babu seeks to cancel mines lease

Hyderabad,Nov 13:Demanding cancellation of mining leases to the Obulapuram Mining Company for its alleged violation of  lease norms,Telugu Desam Party supremo N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday convened an all-party meeting at the Jubilee Hall.The meeting was attended by the Telugu Desam,Communist Party of India, Communist Party (Marx), and Lok Satta.Praja Rajyam,the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) did not turn up for the meet.Naidu said, the Tdp has invited all party leaders except the Congress party to discuss the violation of norms in the lease allotted to the Obulapuram Mining Company owned by Karnataka Tourism Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy.

He described the Anantapur District Forest Officer’s notice to OMC as an'after-thought' and demanded immediate halt to the company’s mining activity.He said the party had been drawing the attention of all for four years as to how G Janardhan Reddy had made use of his proximity to the late chief minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy to explore iron ore illegally in more than the allotted area in Obulapuram to the extent of foraying into bordering Karnataka State.The Tdp leader said the time has now come to initiate appropriate action not only against the Minister but also a close aide of YSR,viz.the Director of Geology and Mines and other officers who had helped the Minister.

The Tdp said the illegal mining has cost the exchequer thousands of crores of rupees in terms of mineral wealth, cess and sales tax.He demanded that the company should be asked to pay a penalty for illegally extracting  of iron ore for the last four years, damaging ancient temple and for fixing official survey posts to mark boundaries. He said the company should be held responsible for damaging roads and evading tax by misleading with wrong figures of quantity of iron ore extracted.