By CJ Ramesh Reddy in Hyderabad
“The VSP is in the Andhra region. There are 35,000 jobs in the Vizag plant but not even 10% of them are from Telangana. We are ready to lay down our lives to prevent the iron ore from Khammam district to be taken to Vizag,” TRS MLA T Harish Rao said at a press conference on Saturday. The TRS leader was reacting to the decision of the state government to allow VSP to utilize the iron ore from Bayyaram mines.
In the meantime, a delegation of TDP leaders from Telangana led by Khammam MP Nama Nageswar Rao met the CM at his camp office on Saturday and urged him to ensure that the ore would not be sent to VSP. Justifying their campaign, the TRS and TDP leaders say that the state government’s move might appear innocuous at this time, but claimed it has an ulterior motive of whisking away the iron ore to the Andhra region.
After the meeting, however, Nama Nageswar Rao said Kiran Kumar had agreed to set up an integrated steel plant in Khammam. “We demanded clarity on the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between the government and VSP while urging him to ensure the utilization of the iron ore within the T-region. He assured us of setting up of an integrated steel plant in Khammam for the utilization of the ore. The formal announcement to this effect would be made after RINL and Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) submitted a feasibility report. So, we will wait for it before thinking of further course of action,” said Nama Nageswar Rao.
Dismissing the charge of the Telangana activists, state officials said that the iron ore from the T region would not be taken to Vizag and instead, VSP would set up a plant in Khammam. Apparently, an understanding was reached between the state and VSP during the Partnership Summit held in Hyderabad in January 2012 to this effect, and in pursuance of that, an office memo was issued on April 17. A GO will be issued shortly clarifying all the doubts and allaying the fears of the Telangana leaders, the officials said.
While assuring the T activists that the iron ore would not be taken out of the Telangana region, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said in Vizag on Saturday that local interests will be protected when it comes to the issue of jobs. The agreement between the state and the steel plant ensures jobs to the local people and the latter cannot deviate from that, he said.
However, that is unlikely to stop the TRS and TDP from connecting the Bayyaram mines iron ore issue to the separate state demand and the lack of jobs for the people of the region. The iron ore is located in about 5,324 hectares across Byayyaram in Khammam (2,500 hectares), Gudur in Warangal (2,500 hectares), and Bhimadevarapalli in Karimnagar (324 hectares).
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