Vizag turns hub for illegal mining

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Sep 14, 2013: Vizag seems to be emerging as the new hub for illegal mining. After illegal lateritic mining, here’s a case of granite mining.

In a blatant violation of the Environment and Forest Rights Act, the district administration had issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to grant lease to a Tamil Nadu-based business person to quarry coloured granite in an area, which was notified as reserved forest, coming under Narsipatnam division. The quarrying is being carried unabated in Nagallakonda since sometime.

The district administration, through the mines and geology department last year, granted the permission to quarry colour granite in an extent of 12.5 acres in Nagallakonda hill area based on a field report submitted by the office of the assistant director of survey and land records.

The Nagallakonda, in an extent of 1,480 acres was notified as reserve forest by the state government as per the powers conferred by Section 15 of the Andhra Pradesh Forest Act of 1967 and it comes under V Madugula revenue mandal.

But, the field report, submitted by the local office of the survey and land records had wrongly identified the boundary of Nagallakonda, stating that the hill is adjacent to Kotnabilli village coming under Ravikamatam mandal, to facilitate the lease licence and to avoid the “reserve forest” tag.

Interestingly, the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) also issued mandatory environment clearance to go ahead with the mining, in Nagallkonda.

The SEIAA issued the clearance for mining in Survey No. 2 of Nagallakonda, coming under Kotnabilli village, of Ravikamatam mandal, based on the information provided by the applicant.

However, the Nagallakonda actually comes under V Madugula mandal. The project was exempted from the process of public hearing as the mining lease area is less than 25 hectares.

As per the documents accessed by DC, the regional deputy director of survey and land records had also framed articles of charges and launched an inquiry against the concerned officer for wrongly identifying the boundary of Nagallakonda and misguiding higher authorities, violating Andhra Pradesh Conduct Rules, 1964.