'Bogus Survey Nos' used to loot Kondapalli forests: TDP

Mangalagiri: TDP national official spokesman K Pattabhi Ram on Sunday termed it as shameless that YSRCP Mylavaram MLA Vasantha Krishna Prasad was telling outright lies on the unlawful leases given for mining in the Kondapalli reserve forests in G Konduru mandal in Krishna district.

Pattabhi Ram asked how the Mylavaram MLA could say that mining leases were given in the TDP regime when there were clear documents to prove it wrong. The permissions at the highest levels came after the YSRCP came to power in 2019. Even now, Survey No 143 was being shown in revenue adangal record as reserve forest. Hence, the mafia cannot continue mining there as per the rules and forest regulations.

Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, the TDP leader said that the available documents showed that the ruling party mafia was bent on illegal mining in Kondapalli forests by using two fabricated survey numbers - 143 and 26/2. These bogus survey Nos. were created during the regime of YSR, father of present Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the TDP leader alleged. At that time, YSR allowed that activity to remove hurdles for illegal mining of his close follower G Sudarsan Rao, who submitted a mining lease application in 2006.

Pattabhi referred to a judgment given by Justice P Navin Rao on December 27, 2016 which confirmed bogus creation of survey numbers 143 and 26/2.

He said that while the documentary evidence was pointing towards the illegal activities of the regimes of YSR and Jagan Reddy, Krishna Prasad was baselessly saying that Devineni Uma got illegal payments for getting leases during the TDP regime.

Records showed that the then TDP Minister just ordered the officials concerned to check records and circulate them. It was in the Naidu regime that the AD, Mines, cancelled the mining leases in S. No 26/2 based on the report and orders of the then Joint Collector.

Pattabhi said that the YSRCP MLA became known as 'Mylavaram Veerappan' for his plundering of forest wealth. It was on October 17, 2019 that the YSRCP government issued orders for changing the classification of reserve forest land in S.Nos 143 and 26/2.

However, the Krishna District Collector once again issued orders in August, 2020, cancelling the re-classification of this land. But the YSRCP mafia once again got this order stayed by the then Principal Secretary in order to continue their illegal gravel mining.