No permission to uranium mining, clarifies Telangana govt

Hyderabad: The TRS government on Sunday clarified that no permission had been given for uranium mining in Nallamala forest area. Despite assurance from the Telangana government, the issue has been creating tremors across the state as experts express concerns over possible uranium mining. If the state government is not firm on this issue, the uranium mining will put Telangana in such a situation that the US and Brazil suffered, they said.

Brushing aside such apprehensions, Mr KT Rama Rao, the industry minister, has assured the Telangana Assembly that that state government wouldn’t accord any such approval in the future as well. So far, no such approval was accorded to UCIL (Uranium Corporation of India Ltd), Mr Rao informed the House.

Further, Mr Rao, in his tweet clarified that the Telangana government had not given any permission on uranium mining in the state.

Have announced the Govt stand on Uranium mining issue in Legislative Council today:

NO mining permission has been accorded by Telangana Govt

We will NOT permit any uranium mining in Nallamala forest area

— KTR (@KTRTRS) September 15, 2019

“We’ll not permit any uranium mining in Nallamal forest area,” said Mr Rao.

Meanwhile, Telangana Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Royyuru Shobha has clarified that no permission was granted to even uranium survey as well.

“So far, no official from Atomic Mineral Directorate visited the bore drilling points in Nallamala forest area. The Dircctorate has sent us communication in the Forest Act Form-C only. The Directorate has never submitted any comprehensive plan on drilling points in the proposed reserves in the Nallamala forest. Udimilla, Narayanpur, Amrabad blocks come under Tiger Sanctuary purview. Hence, as per Forest Conservative Act, the approval should be taken for such survey. There’s no permission for even cutting a tree branch.

Mr Shobha further said that orders had been issued to the officials to study whether bore drilling can be taken up.

“After their study, we’ll submi9t the proposal to the State Board for Wild Life. Then Telangana government will make a decision,” added Ms Shobha.

According to the official, drilling of 25 bores in every 10 square kilometres can be allowed. This gives feasibility for drilling at 207 points only across 83 sqm. Contrary to this, Atomic Mineral Directorate submitted a proposal for drilling at 4,000 points, the official said.

On the other side, Atomic Mineral Directorate (AMD) officials in Hyderabad say that they have not received any approval from the Centre. The AMD officials further said that they just submitted a proposal for collecting model on uranium reserves in Nallamala forest area, but never engaged in any drilling or mining operation.

However,experts are voicing their concerns over possible pollution of the Krishnariver, if uranium mining is taken place. Crores of people along the Krishnariver will suffer from atomic radiation.

While ruling out any possibility of polluting Krishna river, Mr Rao further addedthat no radiation is generated out of uranium mining. For this, uranium shouldbe processed.