Centre urged to prevent beach sand mining in AP

EAS Sarma calls on Atomic Energy & Mines Ministry to halt Andhra Pradesh's beach sand mining allotment to private firms like Adani Group.

Visakhapatnam: Former Secretary to the Central Government EAS Sarma has urged the Department of Atomic Energy and the Mines Ministry to intervene immediately and prevent the Andhra Pradesh government from going ahead with the allotment of beach sand mining areas to any private party including the Adani Group.

In letters addressed to DAE Secretary Ajit Kumar Mohanty and Mines Department Secretary VL Kantha Rao on Sunday, he said that in the event of failing to act, he would be constrained to infer that both the Centre and the State are acting in tandem to grant undue favours to the Adani Group and call for an enquiry.

---

Referring to a tender enquiry floated by the AP government for parties interested in acting as Project Developer and Operator for Planning, Engineering, Financing, Construction, Development, Operation, and Maintenance of Integrated Beach Sand Mineral (BSM) Projects in Gara in Srikakulam district and Bheemunipatnam in Visakhapatnam district in AP, totalling an annual capacity of 10 million tonnes, he said that the only qualification for the bidder seemed to be that they should have prior mining experience.

“Soon after the tender enquiry, I came across a news report which suggests that the State government is likely to allot beach sand areas to the Adani Group, following the union Ministry’s highly regressive amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Act to permit private mining of beach sands. In fact, a few days before the amendment, the Adani Group formed two subsidiaries specifically for beach sand mining in Odisha and AP, giving one an inevitable impression that the Adani Group and the Ministry of Mines were literally acting in tandem, a situation that calls for a high-level enquiry,” he said, recalling that he had already addressed letters to the Cabinet Secretary raising his concerns on this and the other multiple favours granted to the Adani Group by the Central Ministries.