Illegal mining will take a toll on normal lives in Vizag: Communist party of India

CPM politburo member, Brinda Karat on Tuesday said that the decision to allow bauxite and laterite mining in Vizag Agency by the state and Union government would turn the region into another Bellary, where illegal mining has taken a toll on normal lives.

CPM politburo member, Brinda Karat on Tuesday said that the decision to allow bauxite and laterite mining in Vizag Agency by the state and Union government would turn the region into another Bellary, where illegal mining has taken a toll on normal lives.

Talking to reporters in Narsipatnam, she came down heavily on both the governments for trying to push the mining proposal.

The Communist leader said that they would be raising issues related to the new mining policy as well as other mining proposals in the forthcoming Parliament sessions.

Later, the CPM politburo member took part in a dharna at ITDA office in Paderu against the apathy shown by authorities towards resolving issues of the tribals.

Ms Karat warned that she would agitate if the authorities tried to prevent tribals from cultivating podu. Podu cultivation offers livelihood to lakhs of tribals, she said.

“They are being booked under false cases. We will not tolerate this any more. Tribals should be allowed podu cultivation,” she said.

Ms Karat added that schemes introduced for the welfare and upliftme-nt of tribals were not being implemented properly. “Though thousands of crores are allotted for the welfare of tribals, but in reality none of it has been reaching the beneficiaries,” she said.