Andhra Pradesh’s opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has alleged a conspiracy was hatched for a Rs 15,000 crore mining scam in the Visakhapatnam agency area in utter disregard for the forest and environment laws.

Former Minister and TDP leader Nakka Anand Babu on Sunday said that a ‘benami’ of ruling YSR Congress Party leaders recently announced that laterite mining would be taken up in the Sarugudu panchayat limits in Visakha agency. Alleging involvement of mafia, he demanded a CBI probe to bring out the facts.

The TDP leader demanded that the conspirators behind the laterite mining scam should be exposed immediately so that the exploitation could be prevented. “The YSRCP mining mafia had hatched a master plan to loot thousands of crores rupees in manyam mining. Already, such illegal mining was taken up without following the tribal lands and existing environment protection laws,”he said.

Anand Babu also claimed that the NREGS funds were being misused to lay a road to help the laterite mining mafia. The 14-km highway was being laid through Raghavapatnam village in Routhulapudi mandal in East Godavari district through Jaladam, Sarlanka, Siripuram and up to laterite mines in Sarugudu area. As part of this, a key YSRCP leader’s ‘benami’ called and threatened a tribal leader not to object to this mining.

The TDP leader alleged that along with laterite, the mafia was also planning to mine bauxite illegally. He said a gram sabha should be held in the local tribal villages if any mining was going to be taken up in their vicinity. But, no such gram sabha was held in Sarugudu area till now. This was in violation of the scheduled area rules.

The TDP demanded immediate withdrawal of all plans to take up illegal mining in the agency area. It vowed to stand by the tribals to protect their rights.