The Andhra Pradesh Assembly Committee on Petitions visited the Galikonda and Raktakonda areas in Visakha Agency on Monday as part of its on-the-spot study of proposed bauxite mining and establishment of alumina refineries, in response to the petitions submitted by MLAs in the past.
Security reasons associated with the group of MLAs visiting the Agency, one of the Maoist strongholds, people’s strong opposition to bauxite mining and a bandh on Tuesday for which all the Opposition parties gave the call seemed to have forced the committee to cut short its visit on the first day itself. The visit to Chintapalli area on Tuesday was cancelled a few days ago due to security reasons and the bandh, though it was part of the original schedule, informed Superintendent of Police G. Srinivas.
It may be recalled that the J.C. Kala Committee, which was constituted to understand the conditions in the Agency area regarding bauxite mining, could only conduct an aerial survey when it came to the Agency two years ago because the Girijans in the area observed a bandh during its two-day visit. This time the Assembly Committee visited only a part of the area where the bauxite deposits existed.
Taken into custody
Around 30 members of the Girijan Sangham were taken into custody at Anantagiri before the committee entered the Agency and temporary workers of the AP Tourism Corporation were also taken into custody as they wanted to meet the Chairman and members of the committee. The committee, headed by Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, is scheduled to visit Araku Valley did not do so and returned to Visakhapatnam after visiting the two hills.
CPI(M) Paderu divisional secretary M. Suryanarayana said the committee avoided talking to the people. He reiterated that the Girijans would not allow bauxite mining in the Agency.
Later, Mr. Vikramarka said that the committee would give a detailed report to the government on the bauxite mining taking into consideration the local conditions and the feelings of the people. He assured the tourism corporation employees to take up their issue with the government. MLAs Ravula Chandrasekhara Reddy, local MLA Siveri Soma, T. Vijay Kumar, and K. Kamala; Managing Director of APMDC M.K. Meena; Joint Collector Pravin Kumar; PD of APMDC Ramana, Joint Director of Mines Rafi Ahmed; RDO of Paderu P. Ganapathi Rao, DFO Rammohan and other officials accompanied the committee.
