Naidu urges Centre to relax laterite mining norms

Vijayawada: Chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has urged the Centre to revise the mining regulations to unlock the mineral potential areas to attract investments and avoid facing legal challenges from already ‘processed’ applicants. Naidu pointed out that the Centre’s new policy has effectively stalled the laterite mining lease process in Andhra Pradesh.

In a letter to the Union coal and mines minister, G Kishan Reddy, Naidu sought relief from the Centre’s recent decision to reclassify certain laterite deposits as bauxite. The chief minister highlighted the difficulties being faced by the state due to the revised classification norms. The Centre recently issued orders stating that laterite containing 20% or more aluminium content should be treated as bauxite rather than as a minor mineral. The new rule effectively took the laterite into the major mineral category. “The state govt has been compelled to place 402 mining lease applications on hold even though they were originally processed under the minor mineral category before the change in regulations,” said the chief minister.

The chief minister said that the pending applications include 19 letters of intent (LoI) cases, 113 applications involving govt land, 255 applications related to forest land and 15 applications concerning patta land. CM noted that hundreds of applicants had already invested substantial amounts under the previous regulatory framework. Many had paid application fees, purchased land and incurred significant expenditure in securing forest clearances and other approvals based on the earlier classification of laterite as a minor mineral.

Naidu reminded the union minister that when minerals such as mica, quartz, feldspar and barytes were reclassified from minor to major minerals in the past, the Centre had provided a “saving clause” to protect applications that were already in the pipeline. Drawing on that precedent, the chief minister requested the Centre to extend a similar saving clause for laterite mining applications. He urged the union govt to allow the 402 pending applications to be processed under the earlier rules and sought a two-year window to complete the process.

Naidu stated that such a relaxation would help applicants avoid substantial financial losses and prevent potential legal disputes. He also argued that implementing a saving clause would ensure uninterrupted availability of raw materials for cement, iron ore and road construction industries, thereby safeguarding industrial activity and employment in the state.