Rival mine barons in ‘get Reddy Brothers’ mission

By Shivakumar G Malagi

Dec. 16/2009

Talk about a rebellion and the names that automatically spring to mind are the infamous Reddys from Bellary whose November putsch failed to unseat Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.
But this time, tourism minister G. Janardhan Reddy and revenue minister G. Karunakar Reddy who have held back to back midnight parleys with the Chief Minister to defuse the current rebellion, are not playing spoiler but mediator.
In fact, the challenge to BSY’s government comes from a determinedly apolitical mining family who are said to be tacitly backing the 18-20 member ‘third bloc’ and have reportedly struck a deal with the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress leadership to end the Reddy reign over the Bellary empire.
Industry sources say a reputed mine owner whose family has been in mining for the last five decades has been leading the ‘Reddy rival mine owners syndicate’ to execute a game plan to form a JD(S)-Congress government in a bid to keep the Reddy brothers from becoming more powerful than they already are.
The rivalry between the Reddys and the other mining giants has been a longstanding one, that has seen these mining families face police harassment and receive threatening calls.
One of the main reasons that forced this non-political group of mine owners to seek an alternative government in state, sources say, is the difficulty in obtaining mineral dispatch permits (MDPS) from the local officials who only take orders from the Reddy brothers. Apart from this, they are also facing serious encroachment into their mining territory and looting of their mineral wealth.
“Non-issuance of MDPS, leaving mines idle at the time of making business profits, day and night encroachments on their mines, police harassment and delay in getting justice from the court procedures have made Reddy rivals make a one-time investment for an alternative government in the state,” remarked sources.
The mine owners have taken this route before. “The same syndicate of Reddy rivals approached the Chief Minister and a senior national leader of party from New Delhi when the Reddys rebelled last month. Then, they had assured BSY they would bring in the JD(S) in return for the expulsion of the Reddy brothers from the party. They failed due to Sushma Swaraj’s firm support to the Reddy brothers,” the sources said.
But, this time, they seized the opportunity that opened up when the so-called ‘third bloc’ found they had not benefited from aligning with the Reddys. “The statements being issued by JD(S) chief H.D. Deve Gowda party state unit president H.D. Kumaraswamy and Congress leaders S. Siddaramaiah and R.V. Deshpande in recent weeks favouring a Congress-JD(S) coalition is an indication that these mine owners are in touch with both the Congress and JD(S) top leadership,” the source said.

MINED IT! - Tipu weapons from Bellary mine

Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore

By Shivakumar G Malagi

Bellary, Nov 27 2009

When the controversy hogged the Reddy Brothers mining empire after Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court held the Reddys’ owned Obulapuram Mining Company guilty of illegal mining and called for a halt to mining in six mines of Bellary Reserve Forest of Andhra Pradesh for the same reason, great warrior King Tippu Sultan might be turning in his grave!.
Before the “Tom, Dick and Reddys” tryst with disputed mineral rich zone surrounding Suggalamma hillock in BRF of Rayadurg taluk on Andhra Pradesh side, nearly 220 years ago, Mysore Tiger Tippu Sultan excavated mineral from the same area to manufacture artillery including war rockets.
According to volume XXV of the Geology of the Bellary District, Madras Presidency published in 1895, Tippu Sultan had a mine on the Sugalamma Koda (hillock). Author of this volume, Robert Bruce Foote, F.G.S., F.M.U; Superintendent of Geological Survey of India wrote “metal was mined for by Tippu Sultan when master of the Bellary region”. He wrote that Copper Mountain, a European geologist in Tippu’s army had vouched existence of mineral, particularly discovered copper and other chemical compositions of mineral in Sugalamma Konda that was used in making combustion powder.He documented that during his traverse, he found haematite quartzite rock, but there were no signs of copper in any form of variety. However, in his third attempt, he found an old abandoned mine in Sugalamma Konda as called by Telugu neighbourhood or Copper Mountain possessed of no collective native name, but which may well be called after its principal summit the Copper Mountain of the European and Suggammadevi Betta or Sogadevibetta of the Canarese (Kannada speaking people) natives.
In fact, Robert Bruce Foote took up research on Tippu's mine after the Captain T J Newbold, F.R.S of the Madras Army who made a number of traverses through various parts of the district after the fall of Tippu in IV Anglo-Mysore War. He had made descriptions on Tippu’s mines and mineral melting furnaces’ in Suggalamma hillock in the journal of Asiatic Societies of London and Bengal in 1842.
According to Kannada Kaifiyats (, with the mineral mined out from Suggalamma Konda, Tippu’s European engineers produced manufactured war weapons in melting furnaces located in the area including that Tippu-fame war rockets with an important change: the use of metal cylinders to contain the combustion powder. He used to store artillery in Bellary fort built on the Bellary rock hill.