Labour Minister Achchem Naidu said the state government has cancelled mining license of Virgin Rocks Pvt. Ltd Company that belongs to former minister Dharmana Prasada Rao’s son Dharmana Rammanohar Naidu. He said Chandrababu Naidu has promised to return Kannedhara hill area back to tribal families living there and it was done today.”

 

Virgin Rocks Company was given license for mining in 10 hectares of land in survey No.289 in Kannedhara hill area by the previous Congress government, despite objections from the opposition parties and the 97 tribal families living there.

 

Soon after, TDP comes into power in the AP State it constituted a sub-committee with ministers to study irregularities taken during last ten years of Congress ruling. It found that Kannedhara hill area is an assigned land and there are total 93 tribal families are living in the 3 villages doing some agriculture work in their 12.85 hectares of assigned lands. Virgin Rocks Company was given license for granite mining operations in their assigned lands with which they were displaced and lost their livelihood.

 

Hence, the AP government recently cancelled the No Objection Certificate given to the Company and now also cancels its license for mining in that particular area, following the sub-committee report. But, is this action enough to justify the poor tribal families, who badly suffered with the mining operations by Virgin Rocks?