The city council of CPI organised a dharna in front of the Collectorate here on Wednesday demanding the government to allot the Obulapuram and Bayyaram iron ore mines to the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.
Since it was primarily established that Gali Janardhana Reddy has made huge profits through illegal methods while mining the iron ore, the Obulapuram mines must be allotted to VSP, the CPI leaders said and wanted the Bayyaram mines in Khammam district also be allotted to VSP as the Central government cancelled the lease given to APMDC for exploitation of the mines for Rakshana Steel.
Memo submitted
A memorandum to this effect was submitted to the Chief Minister through the Collector.
CPI leaders J.V. Satyanarayana Murthy, M. Pydi Raju, A.J. Stalin, G. Vamana Murthy, A. Vimala, and K. Satyanjaneya were among those who participated in the dharna.
They recalled that the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant was established after a long agitation during which 32 people lost their lives and 20,000 villagers lost their land and livelihood. It had progressed a lot and received Navaratna status and expansion of the plant was on. It needed captive mines, the CPI said and also wanted the Chief Minster to make the Central government to withdraw the disinvestment proposal.
