Obulapuram Mining Company is one of the five firms engaged in iron ore mining in Obulapuram and surrounding villages in Anantapur district bordering Karnataka.

YSR, as the chief minister is popularly known, also rejected the opposition demand for cancelling the mining lease given to private companies and for nationalisation of mines.

He clarified that the recent action of the central government in suspending the mining lease of five companies, including Obulapuram, followed a dispute between two mining companies.

'What is the interest you have in a dispute between two private companies?' he asked leader of opposition and TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu.

The chief minister claimed that it was the then TDP government which granted a mining lease to Obulapuram company in 1996 and when his government refused to renew the lease, the company approached the court, which ordered renewal of the lease.

Naidu, however, stood by his stand that the government committed serious irregularities to favour Obulapuram Mining Company.

After the suspension, the opposition legislators staged a protest at Gun Park in front of the assembly building. Addressing the legislators, Naidu alleged that YSR had personal interests in Obulapuram and hence was not agreeing to the demand for house committee. He urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene to stop the 'loot of the state's mineral resources by some private parties in collusion with the chief minister'.