Mines and Minerals Act was brought by Cong govt: BRS

Hyderabad: BRS leader B Vinod Kumar on Friday refuted the allegations of the Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu that the party had supported the Mines and Minerals Act and reminded that it was the Congress government that brought this Act in 2011 under the leadership of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Addressing a press conference, Vinod Kumar said, “The Bill was first introduced in 2011 under the leadership of Manmohan Singh. The BJP government has brought the Bill in the form of an Ordinance, which was brought as per the suggestions of the standing committee during the UPA regime. It is meaningless to say that BRS MPs have supported this. Bhatti should withdraw his comments unconditionally.”

The BRS leader recalled that the party had cautioned earlier that both Modi and Revanth together would sell Singareni, and it was coming true now. Vinod Kumar said that coal blocks can be reserved for Singareni under Section 17A.

“Revanth should now take the same letter written by BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao on Singareni to the Centre in the past. Kishan Reddy and Revanth Reddy should immediately go to Delhi, meet Modi, and save Singareni. Singareni had enough coal reserves for hundreds of years. They should be used for the development of Telangana. It is unfortunate that the Congress does not have the slightest knowledge that the mineral bill was passed by voice vote,” he recalled.