Andhra Pradesh Government is in the process of canceling two Limestone Mines allocation of Bharathi Cements. Jagan’s family owns the company and his wife Bharathi is director of the company.
The Mine allocation of Associate Cement Company (ACC) and Ramco Cements will also be cancelled. The government has recently ordered the Mines Department to submit a report on this. Once the report is submitted, the four leases will be cancelled.
There are clear rules that Mines can be given only through auction.
But just two months before the election, the then Government allocated the mines to Bharathi Cements and other companies without any auction.
Interestingly, the State Government did not identify this issue. It was a Central Institution that identified this wrong-doing and informed the state government.
When these three companies applied for mining plans to the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), a central agency, it identified loopholes in these leases.
It stated that obtaining leases through applications rather than through auctions was against the rules and brought the information to the attention of the Central Mines Department.
Accordingly, the Central Mines Department asked the state government to take a decision on the cancellation of these leases.
After that, the Chandrababu Naidu government took the opinion of the Law Department on this and also sought the opinion of the AG.
It is learnt that the AG suggested that it was right to cancel these leases.
Accordingly, the state government recently ordered the Mines Department to submit a report stating under which rules the leases can be cancelled. Once the report is received, the government will cancel four leases based on it.
Sources in the Mines Department say that auctions should be held for these four leases as per the central rules.
