Obulapuram - turns an abandoned town

ANANTAPUR: Obulapuram, once busy with hundreds of people working in iron ore mines, JCBs digging up earth and making artificial hillocks and trucks carrying loads, has become a quiet and gloomy place today.

Hundreds of workers, who were engaged in mines earlier, are now migrating to other places in search of livelihood, while those who invested in trucks for transporting iron ore, are living with an uncertain future.

D Herehall mandal in Anantapur district borders with Bellary in Karnataka and is famous for its iron ore deposits. Obulapuram, H Siddapuram and nearby villages of the mandal have iron ore mines, providing jobs to thousands of people in D Herehall and also from Bellary.

Obulapuram Mining Company, Anthar Gangamma Mining Company, YM Mahabaleswarappa and Sons Mining Company and Bellary Iron Ore Private Limited had taken lease of the mines and were mining ore in about 500 acres.

Of the six mines, four were owned by former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, who is now in judicial custory pending inquiry into irregularities and fraud in mining operations.

With the ban on mining activities in the region until further orders, several hundreds of people have lost their livelihood. In the six mines, there were about 1,200 permanent staff. They were being paid salaries as per the norms. Another 250 were managerial staff like mining managers.

On an average, 400 trucks used to transport iron ore from Obulapuram to ports at Krishnapatnam in Nellore district, Chennai, Mangalore etc every day.

With brisk mining operations, several people had taken loans from private financiers and purchased trucks and tippers, which were engaged in mining operations and transport of ore.

In all, about 10,000 such vehicles were operational when the mining activity was at its peak. A driver was earning about Rs 25,000 per month, including driver batha, loading batha and trip batha. Even the cleaners working under them made nearly Rs 12,000 per month.

A number of filling stations were setup between Obulapuram and Bellary to supply fuel to the vehicles. On an average, each fuel station sold 15,000 litres of diesel per day.

Further, over 20 stone crushing units were set up in Obulapuram to supply gravel etc for the booming mining towns.

With 18 out of the 20 crushers closed down for want of work, several people dependent on them were rendered jobless.

The other two crushers were also on the verge of closure. The fuel stations are able to sell hardly 2,000 litres per day now.

With the mines closed, respective managements removed most of the employees and are functioning with only 20 percent of the staff, who are paid only half their salaries every month.

People from Obulapuram, H Siddapuram, D Herehall, HS Thanda, Mallavaram Gudi and other areas, who used to work in the mines, are migrating to Bellary and other places in search of livelihood.

The affect of the mines being closed is more telling on Bellary in Karnataka than on Anantapur district. Private finance companies, which gave loans for purchase of trucks and tippers, had seized them as the loans were not repaid.

As per law, the companies engaged in mining should contribute to the development of nearby villages, but in the case of Obulapuram mines, it never happened.

People got work and earned their livelihood. Other than that, not much development had taken place, while mining companies earned crores of rupees. Besides mine owners, bankers too benefited a lot.

Bank officials, thanks to large scale financial transactions, got promotions and incentives.

A worker engaged in loading and unloading the ore used to earn Rs 500 per day. But today, with no work, he is forced to migrate to other places and earn much less.

D Herehall tahasildar D Shankaraiah says the situation is bad in Obulapuram. With no mining, there is no work for people and with no rains, drought is prevailing in the district. So, villagers are moving to other places.