Former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu, who is in the thick of a fight against a powerful mine owner and Karnataka's tourism minister Galli Janardhan Reddy, has chided the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress for being under control of mining mafia.
The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) appointed by the Supreme Court on environment and forest, in its preliminary report submitted to the apex court has confirmed that prima facie there was illegal mining beyond the limits of leased lands, in violation of the forest conservation act by Reddy's companies.
The Telugu Desam Party, along with its Left allies, will raise the "mining mafia" issue in the forthcoming session of Parliament.
Lord Venkateshwara, the reigning deity of the Tirumala temple in Tirupati has a new and the most expensive gold crown studded with precious diamonds. The crown, made of 32 kilograms of pure gold and 70,000 diamonds, offered by Karnataka's minister for tourism and industrialist, Galli Janardhan Reddy, and his son Keerti Reddy, was put on the idol in the wee hours of Friday.