Quarry lease applicants white-card holders: Govt

VIJAYAWADA: In issuance of Rs 100.24 crore demand notice to Trishul Cements, the State government on Wednesday informed the Andhra Pradesh High Court that all those who applied for lease of 1,605 acres of limestone quarries under the company name were holders of white ration cards with an annual income less than Rs 18,000.

Representing the State government, Additional Advocate General Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy said all those applicants were in fact benamis of former minister JC Diwakar Reddy and all of them were his drivers, cleaners and other workers, the AAG informed.

He further said for Diwakar Reddy and his men, the time before 2019 was like a golden era of Guptas as they got what they wanted from the then government. Without setting up the cement factory for which the quarries were leased, they got the lease term extended again and again so as to allow them mining limestone, which in turn was sold to other cement factories.

As many as 13.81 lakh metric tonnes of limestone was quarried illegally and as per the rule a demand notice for Rs 100.24 crore was issued to Trishul Cements on May 7, 2020. The officials had acted as per the rule, he maintained.Taking into consideration, the government’s submission in the demand notice case, Justice R Raghunandan Rao posted it to August 30.

Trishul Cements managing partner Sk Hussain Basha had petitioned the High Court to cancel the demand notice issued to them. The petitioner’s counsel S Srinivas argued that Trishul Cements ceased to exist in 2011 and the demand notice issued on its name was not valid.

PS Rajasekhar, advocate for Murali Prasad Reddy, who impleaded in the case, said only after his client filed a PIL, the government cancelled the lease to Trishul Cements. He sought to know if the company ceased to exist than on whose name the lease was extended several times.