AP: Tribal minister wants ban on bauxite mining

Union Tribal Welfare Minister V. Kishore Chandra Deo's letter to Andhra Pradesh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan seeking his intervention in stopping of bauxite mining in the tribal areas of Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts has created ripples in the state political circles.

The mining of bauxite is being undertaken by the state-run Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation in 1,876 hectares of forest areas.

The APMDC, in turn, entered into agreements in 2007 with two companies - ANRAK belonging to Ras Al Khaimah, a UAE Republic and Jindal South West Limited for supply of bauxite ore for setting up of Alumina refineries. While ANRAK has got Alumina Refinery project at Makavaripalem in Narasipatnam Division of Visakhapatnam district, Jindal South-West Limited has bagged an Alumina Refinery near Srungavarapukota in Vizianagaram district.

The investment in these two projects are estimated to be around Rs 15,000 crore.

Deo, who represents Araku parliamentary constituency which falls in the bauxite mining zone, has been strongly opposing the projects even before he was inducted into the Union cabinet last year. In his latest letter to the governor on March 14, the Union minister accused the then Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government of taking up bauxite mining to favour the private companies. As per the Alienation of the Land Transfer Act to protect the rights of the Scheduled Tribes in Schedule V areas, a non-tribal person cannot be allowed to puchase or even lease a piece of land in the region. The signing of MoUs with the private companies was against the Act, he pointed out.

The letter has come at a time when the Congress government in the state was struggling to get rid of the YSR image and the CBI investigating into the alleged irregularities committed by the YSR government in the allotment of lands to various firms as a quid pro quo arrangement for making investments in the business empire of his son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.