Zeenews Bureau
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government Tuesday ordered a CBI probe into the alleged irregularities by the Obulapuram Mining Corporation (OMC) owned by Karnataka Tourism Minister G Janardhana Reddy and his family.
The probe was ordered following recommendation of a three-member committee constituted by Chief Minister K Rosaiah, 10 days ago, to probe allegations by the opposition about illegal activities of the Reddy brothers.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and other opposition parties allege that OMC illegally shifted iron ore worth Rs.5 billion from Karnataka to Andhra Pradesh.
This is the first time that the Andhra Pradesh government has ordered a probe against the mining interests of the powerful Reddy brothers, who had almost pulled down the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka last week.
The authorities in Andhra Pradesh started tightening the screws on the Reddys and their mining interests in the state following the death of then Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in a helicopter crash Sep 2.
Rajasekhara Reddy was considered close to Janardhana Reddy and his brothers and the two families share business interests.
The preliminary complainant in the case was the forest department of Anantapur district, who had, in fact, served as many as five notices to the Reddy firm for alleged irregularities.
The notices pertain to complaints on illegal mining, encroachment of reserve forest area as well as other companies’ mining areas, construction of illegal roads in the forests and transporting ore in violation of the permits.
Anantapur Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Kallol Biswas had issued notice Nov 1 asking the OMC to explain why the iron ore mined outside the lease area was being illegally transported from Karnataka to Andhra Pradesh using unauthorised roads.
The official claimed that the company destroyed the boundary pillars between the mining lease areas between the two states for this illegal activity.
The opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh had been targeting Rajasekhara Reddy’s government for extending the mining lease of OMC and allowing it to indulge in irregularities.
TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu has demanded that the mining licence of OMC be cancelled. He alleged that the illegal mining by the firm caused huge losses to the state during the last five years.
