Indian Union Ministers seeks 20 years ban on bauxite mining

Union minister for panchayat raj and Araku MP Kishore Chandra Deo and Union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh urged the state government to ensure that ANRAK was not given permission to mine bauxite in the Chintapalli region.

Raising the issue at a meeting at G K Veedhi in Visakhapatnam district on Sunday, Kishore Chandra Deo termed bauxite mining in the region as 'unconstitutional'. He said that a cabinet meeting (involving 7 cabinet ministers) had observed that allowing ANRAK to mine bauxite from the area would be in total violation of the spirit of the Constitution.

Jairam Ramesh in his address asked the state government to impose a 20-year ban on bauxite mining in the region and stated that wherever there was mining in tribal areas, the tribal stood to lose, which indirectly encouraged Maoists. Observing that it was imperative to protect the interests of those living in scheduled areas, Jiaram Ramesh noted that Maoists had a strong presence in areas where the tribal felt unhappy and were not content.

Pointing out that Maoist insurgency was a major issue in 82 districts of the country, especially in Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra; Jairam Ramesh stated that they must adopt the AP model to deal with the Maoist issue and urged the government to protect the interests of the tribals in those areas.

Taking up the issue of bauxite mining, chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy said that if it was against the Constitution and illegal, he would not permit such activity. However, he refused to comment on the plea for 20-year moratorium on mining.