mining scam - ‘Reddys ready to quit business’

By Shivakumar G Malagi/ Jan 2009 Health minister and co-owner of Obulapuram Mining Corporation (OMC) V.Sriramulu says the U V Singh committee has nowhere referred to his company when talking of encroachments made on the state’s borders. . The U V Singh committee looked into encroachment of the state’s border in the Bellary-Ananthpur forest belt by mining companies registerd in Andhra Pradesh.. “The Singh committee has nowhere found the OMC guilty of encroachment. Let anyone prove this charge. We (he and the three Reddy brothers) will give up the mining business,” Mr Sriramulu asserted, contending that the “Congress leaders who are demanding our resignation on the basis of this report have lost their mental balance.” The U.V. Singh committee, which had officers of the departments of rev enue, forests, survey and land records and mines and geology on it, has held mining firms registered in Andhra Pradesh guilty of encroaching on Karnataka’s border. The Obulapuram Mining Corporation (OMC) and Y. Mahabaleshwarappa Mining Company have been granted leases to mine in Obulapuram, Malapanagudi and Siddapur forest blocks in Andhra Pradesh. Alleges Mr Tapal Ganesh, co-owner of Tumati Iron Ore Mines who first charged the OMC with encroaching on Karnataka’s borders in 2006 , “The OMC owned by the Reddy brothers and the Y Mahabaleshwarappa Mining Company owned by Andhra Chief Minister Y S Rajashekhara Reddy's son Jagan have encroached on the Tumati forest range in the State”. They have been illegally extracting 10,000 tonnes of iron ore per day from the State’s MBT, HT, NR and Tumati mine areas and stocking it in their firms in AP.”