Obulapuram Mining moves SC against AP govt

Obulapuram Mining Company, owned by Karnataka ministers G Janardhan Reddy and G Karunakar Reddy, has approached the Supreme Court requesting it to grant permission for sale of around 2.5 lakh metric tonne of iron ore lying at mines in Andhra Pradesh to enable the company to pay taxes.

Filing an application, OMC submitted before the apex court that the Andhra Pradesh government was not issuing it a dispatch permit for transporting iron ore for sale in the market.

OMC further submitted that the Income Tax department had already issued it notices seeking Rs 184 crore as tax for three consecutive years.

The Reddy brothers, who own mining leases for over 140 hectares of land spread in Andhra Pradesh's Anantapur district, are accused of encroaching upon reserve forest land.

On May 10, 2010 the Supreme Court had allowed OMC to resume mining in the undisputed region with a direction not to do mining upto a distance of 50 metres on either side of the inter-state boundary of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

OMC has further submitted that the mining was done after getting permission from the apex court.

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi appearing for the mining firm requested the court to take a decision on this on urgent basis as otherwise the heap of iron ores would be oxidised and thereby, lose its value.

On this, a special forest Bench headed by chief Justice SH Kapadia directed to list the matter on April 22.

However, the Bench did not gave any relief to OMC, despite requests made by Rohatgi contending, "whether the iron ore is legally or illegally mined, it has to be sold".

Unimpressed by it, the Bench said, "this is a situation brought by you (OMC) only".

Earlier, on January 7, Central Empowered Committee, a high-powered panel appointed by apex court had recommended to cancel OMC's mining lease after finding that it has flouted various environmental laws in mining operations.

The committee had also slammed Andhra Pradesh government officials, saying the violations could not have taken place without their connivance.

CEC in its report recommended cancellation of the lease to four different mines spread over 140 acres on grounds of, among others, large scale illegal mining in Bellary Reserve Forest area.

The apex court had on March 22 banned mining of iron ores by OMC and appointed a committee comprising officials of Survey of India, forest, irrigation and revenue departments of Andhra Pradesh, besides representatives of the Reddy brothers to look into the allegations of illegal mining and violation of leased areas.