: The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to cancel the bauxite supply agreement it had signed with the Anrak Aluminium Ltd, a joint venture of the Ras-al-Khaimah government and the Penna Group, for fixation of sale price of bauxite and the percentage of equity to the AP Mineral Development Corporation.
The agreement, stipulating supply of 224 million tonnes of the mineral to the joint venture, was signed when Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy was at the helm of the affairs. “The deal is structured in way that it will not benefit tribal people in any manner and is in the interests of the joint venture company,” Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday said.
He said the previous government had earmarked 1,162 hectares in Jerrela block of the Chintapalli reserve forest for the Anrak joint venture in an agreement which was totally one-sided. The joint venture had invested over Rs. 5,300 crore in the project ever since, but there were several procedural lapses in the deal. “The deal exposes the selfish interests of an individual as is evident from the investments made by the Penna group in Carmel Asia and Jagati Publications, the owners of Sakshi television and daily,” he said.
The Chief Minister intervened during a debate on the bauxite mining issue in the Legislative Assembly after Mines and Geology Minister P. Sujata made a statement on behalf of the government.
He recalled how YSR overruled a suggestion made by senior officials during a high-level meeting against allocating a specified area to the joint venture and wanted the government to take up mining of bauxite.
“The Anrak Aluminium started operations with shareholding of the Penna Group and Ras-al-Khaimah at 70:30. But, this was subsequently been changed to 87:13 during the Kiran Kumar Reddy government. In addition, there are several clauses that prevent the APMDC from selling the mineral to any other promoter. The sale agreement permitting operations till the extraction of the mineral is completed or till the company ceases to operate in itself exposes the intentions behind the deal,” Mr. Naidu said.
The deal is structured in a way that it will not benefit tribal people in any manner and is in the interest of the joint venture company
– N. Chandrababu Naidu
Chief Minister
