The proposed tour of Kadapa district by a nine-member team of officials of the Steel Authority of India on May 24 and 25 has rekindled the hopes of the people that an integrated steel factory would be established in place of Brahmani steel plant at Ambavaram in Jammalamadugu constituency.
SAIL officials will address a meeting of mining, irrigation, electricity, pollution control board and other officials in the mini-conference hall in the Collectorate at 11 am. on May 24 and make a field visit on May 25, General Manager of District Industries Centre G. Gopal said here on Thursday.
Construction of a steel plant in the public sector through SAIL or Rashtriya Ispat Nigam was one of the predominant demands during the 75-day-long anti-bifurcation movement. The steel plant would not only generate employment avenues, but would give rise to establishment of several ancillary units that would provide indirect employment.
The demand for a steel plant was voiced vehemently during the anti-bifurcation movement in Kadapa district in the backdrop of termination of a Memorandum of Understanding reached by the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy Government with Brahmani Industries Limited (BIL), a subsidiary of Obulapuram Mining Company, owned by former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, who was jailed in an illegal mining scam.
The Government terminated the MoU, whose validity expired on May 10, 2010, and for the latter’s failure to keep up commitment to set up an integrated steel plant at Jammalamadugu.
The Kiran Kumar Reddy Government had cancelled alienation of over 10,760 acres of land to Brahmani Industries Limited for its failure to establish an integrated steel plant within the stipulated time frame. .
The YSR Government had extended several incentives under the State’s Industrial Promotion Policy 2005-10 to the BIL by classifying the integrated steel plant as a mega project. In the aftermath of the Comptroller and Auditor-General rapping the State Government on indiscriminate allotment of land to the BIL, several notices were served on the company seeking an explanation for failing to fulfil its obligations and complete the project work.
The previous Kadapa Collector had filed a criminal case against BIL, after the Government detected that BIL had mortgaged the land allotted to the steel plant, to Axis Bank and obtained a loan of Rs. 350 crore.
In response to notices served on it by the Government, the BIL claimed to have invested Rs. 1,350 crore of its own money on the steel plant. BIL further admitted in its response to the Government that its parent company stopped operations and the steel plant works too were halted.
