Andhra Pradesh

Helicopter survey in bauxite mining area triggers fresh controversy

VISAKHAPATNAM: A survey conducted by a group of persons on Tuesday on Pittapunuku hill in Jerrela range in Chintapalli mandal where the government is proposing to take up bauxite mining prompted an unsuccessful attempt to stage protest by the girijans and the CPI(M).

As the survey is on, three villages located above Jerrela have been vacated and some 200 persons belonging to 50 families living in the villages – Korapalli, Pedavoddu and Jolaguda – all under Jerrela panchayat, were forced to leave along with all their belongings and cattle.

A helicopter survey was conducted on Monday, and on Tuesday a helicopter landed on the Pittapunuku. The CPI(M) activists and girijan leaders of Chintapalli, Balapam and Jerrela areas tried to reach the spot to stage a protest but they could not make it in time as they had to cross two hillocks. “Our people covered 12 km in a jeep but as they were climbing the hills on the way to Pittapunuku, the group of people took off in the helicopter,” CPI (M) district secretary Ch. Narasinga Rao told The Hindu.

The girijans, along with political parties, people’s organisations, human rights groups, environmentalists and even the banned CPI (Maoist), are strongly opposing bauxite mining in the agency area and setting up of alumina refineries in Makavarapalem and S. Kota mandals (the latter in Vizianagaram district adjacent to Visakhapatnam district) to process the ore, as the mining and refineries would lead to massive damage to environment and thereby to the people and complete dislocation of girijans. The AP Mineral Development Corporation would take up mining (as the Constitution prohibits non-girijans to take up such activities in the Scheduled area) and supply the ore to the private refineries. The members of the group that came in the helicopter could not be identified.

But, according to reports from Narsipatnam at the foothill of the agency area and from where the helicopter made three sorties, a representative of Ras-al-Khaimah, the Arabian firm that was given permission to establish an alumina refinery in Makavarapalem mandal near Narsipatnam, a few government officials and some private individuals were in the group.

Mr. Narasinga Rao suspected that the helicopter survey was done to fulfil a formality as the party MPs M. Babu Rao and Y. Madhu had last month filed a complaint with the Union Ministry of Mines against granting permission for mining without conducting a survey in the proposed site. The permission was granted on May 1 last year. The incident of villagers having been forced to vacate their homes came to light when the CPI (M) team came across them as it was rushing to Pittapunuku. The villagers told the CPI (M) activists that the police came to their villages and made them leave.

Mr. Narasinga Rao condemned the survey in the bauxite mining area even as all sections were opposing the proposal and the villages being vacated. Where was the need to conduct the survey in a secret manner, he asked. This clandestine method would raise further doubts and fears among the girijans, he said.

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