Cracking down on the illegal mining activities in Prakasam district, the YSRCP government in Andhra Pradesh on Monday cancelled the lease granted to the company of TDP MLA from Addanki Gottipati Ravi Kumar for quarrying granite.
Orders were issued on Monday evening seeking to cancel the quarry leases of Gottipati and also another senior TDP leader Pothula Rama Rao, former MLA of Kandukukru in Prakasam district. They were charged with resorting to irregularities in the quarrying of granite.
Within no time, the mining department authorities seized the granite quarries and locked them by pasting the orders at the spot. They also put up heavy bandobust at the quarries.
There has been tremendous pressure on the TDP leaders involving in illegal quarrying of granite permits for which were granted during the Chandrababu Naidu regime.
In fact, the Jagan government had cancelled the permits for granite quarrying of the TDP leaders including Gottipati, Pothula and Siddha Raghava Rao.
However, the permits of Siddha Raghava Rao had been restored after he joined the YSRC. Gottipati and others refused to join the YSRC and moved the high court, which stayed the government orders.
Yet, the authorities chose to force the quarries to be shut in the name of lack of environmental permits.
It is learnt Gottipati and Pothula are planning to go to the court to get back their licences.