Scouting for alternatives to mining at Bayyaram: KTR

Hyderabad: Alleging betrayal by the Union government on Bayyaram Steel Factory, Mines Minister KT Rama Rao on Thursday said that the government was making alternative arrangements of mining either through Singareni or any other private company.

The Minister was replying to a supplementary question raised by the BRS member B Suman, who wanted to know whether the State government was taking up alternatives in the wake of Centre's lack of commitment towards setting up of Bayyaram Steel Plant as enunciated in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 during the Question Hour in the Assembly on Thursday. Rama Rao said that the Union Steel Ministry was misleading with statements that there was no quality in the iron ore in Bayyaram. The State government had already initiated alternative steps and the mining would be taken up either by the Singareni or with a private institute.

Alleging that the BJP government was trying to make the Singareni as the sick unit, the Minister said that the BRS government will leave no stone unturned to fight against this move by the Centre. Fighting is not new for the BRS leaders, who achieved separate statehood through agitation. If needed the party leaders would take up a protest against the Centre. He said that the Centre had asked the Singareni to participate in the auction of four blocks. "We wanted the Centre to give works to Singareni on a nomination basis on the lines of Gujarat Mining Corporation, but the Centre has dictated the Company to participate in the auction. They want to prove Singareni as a sick unit," said Rama Rao.

Replying to a question on sand mining, the minister said that during the decade long rule of Congress party from 2004 to 2014 the revenue from sand mining was Rs 39.40 crore whereas since 2015 under the BRS government the sand revenue per year was over Rs 800 crore. The minister asked the MLAs to approach the district collectors for the village level permits if there are any issues locally. He said that the revenue increased with the steps taken by the government like introducing sand mining policy 2014, revision of Seigniorage fee and dead rent, levy of permit fee, renewal fee, security deposit on existing leases, letter of intent fee and others.

In another question asked by BRS MLA Saidi Reddy, the Industries Minister said that the government attracted Rs 21,400 crore worth of investments. The investments approval has come from companies including Rs 16,000 crore worth investments by Microsoft for its data centre, Rs 2,000 Crore worth investment by Bharti Airtel for Nxtra Data Centre.