The High Court of Andhra Pradesh has served notices on Vemuru MLA Meruga Nagarjuna and former MLA of Repalle Devineni Mallikarjuna Rao on a writ petition on illegal sand mining filed by Dalit farmers belonging to Oleru village in Bhattirprolu mandal.
Farmers belonging to Aadi Andhra Tenants Cooperative Society, at Oleru, filed a petition stating that the supporters of the two leaders had been illegally mining huge quantities of sand on the “lanka lands” in the fertile river beds for the last three months. The farmers, represented by Meruga Devadanam and Bussa Suguna Raju, said that they had submitted representation of River Conservator, Vijayawada, State Pollution Control Board, Deputy Director, Mining and Collector, Guntur, but no action had been taken so far.
Oleru village, situated near Repalle, is located downstream of Prakasam Barrage. In 2009, a breach at the sluice gates in the village caused enormous flooding and submerged many villages and Repalle town. Later, the sluice gates were repaired.
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G. Arun Shourie, advocate, who represented the farmers, said that any further sand mining could cause flooding of the villages located on either side of the river, which could severely affect their livelihoods, deplete natural resources and cause them displacement.