Telugu Desam Party National General Secretary Nara Lokesh has alleged that the Andhra Pradesh government has indulged in a Rs. 15,000 Crore worth bauxite mining scam in the forest area of Visakhapatnam. He said that the government laid a 30 feet wide road in this protected forest area, for 14Km, in a record time of 24 days, by felling as many as 10,000 trees.
Lokesh said that the AP government is covering this up by saying that this road was laid to connect the rest of the city to a remote village of 250 people. TDP state president Kinjarapu Atchannaidu also said the same, adding that this was the area where Alluri Sitaramaraju fought the British.
The opposition party leaders said that this forest area consists of rich biodiversity, hosting a variety of species, including elephants, leopards and sloth bears. On the other hand, mining principal secretary Gopal Krishna Dwivedi said that there’s no bauxite mining going on in the state and that some TV channels are falsely propagating this news. He even threatened to file a defamation case in court, if this continued.