Andhra Minister slams Chandrababu on mining violations in Kuppam

Tirupati: Andhra Pradesh minister for mining Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy on Thursday slammed the Telugu Desam party (TDP) chief and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu for malpractices and violations in mining activity in Kuppam area of Chittoor district in the state during his 14 years rule.
Addressing a media conference here, the minister also flayed the TDP chief on allegations of illegal sand transportation going unabated at 75 places in the state.
Peddireddy said during TDP regime in all 71 mining licenses were issued in Kuppam of which only 31 are operational now and the rest eclipsed. YSRCP government has now issued notices to the remaining 31 for violations and two licenses to Karthik Madhav and Sai Krishna licenses issued by YSRCP are now under review and both slapped huge penalties, he said.
Denying charges of mining rights violations, the minister said YSRCP government has now achieved 3 ranks for mining industry with reforms.
Is it not a fact that during TDP regime the national green tribunals had slapped Rs 100 crore fine on AP government for violations in sand mining activity? , he quipped.
He also denied charges that daily 1000 lorries of laterite ore were supplied to Bharati Cements while Leterite content was only 3 percent in cement production.
He said the YSRCP had come down heavily on the mining mafia promoted by Chandrababu and also denied of an mining activity at Rushikonda area in Visakhapatnam.
To date the Mining Department collected Rs 114 crore as fine from 43 mining lease holders. (UNI)