Leaders of Left parties staging a demonstration against bauxite mining in Eastern Ghats near the venue of international conference on bauxite, alumina and aluminium were arrested by the police.
The Left parties demanded that the proposal to exploit rich bauxite reserves in the Eastern Ghats be shelved as it was only to export the ore to other countries like China. The existing production capacities were enough to meet the demand for aluminium in the country, they said.
Countries like China were importing bauxite only to protect their own reserves for future needs, CPI (M) State executive member Ch. Narsing Rao said, urging Government to reconsider its decision to allow mining of bauxite reserves in the country.
Permissions to mine bauxite would lead to large scale exploitation of the reserves by unscrupulous elements, CPI State assistant secretary J.V.S.N. Murthy said. In the process the Girijans who would be dislocated by the mining would be left homeless and without a source of livelihood, he added.
The leaders of CPI, CPI (M), CPI (ML) New Democracy, CPI (ML) Liberation and SUCI (C), were not allowed into the venue of the International seminar and they staged a protest at the gate of the star hotel where the meet was on. Later, the police forcibly removed the protestors.
