ONGOLE: The AP Pollution Control Board has said the public hearing scheduled to be conducted on May 26 at Singarayakonda village to seek the views of locals regarding expansion of a distillery has been postponed indefinitely. The next date will be announced later. APPCB Ongole region executive engineer G Nagi Reddy said on the directives of the district collector, the environmental public hearing on the expansion of M/s Pearl Distillery Ltd has been postponed. The Human Rights Forum (HRF) had earlier raised objections over the APPCB and the government conducting a series of public hearings in Srikakulam and Prakasam districts to sanction permissions for various industrial projects in the present Covid- 19 pandemic.
The HRF said that the curfew imposed to contain the spread of the virus would cause difficulties for the public in attending the hearings. Meanwhile, the mining department authorities have postponed a meeting to hear the opinion of granite quarry owners, scheduled for Monday in Ongole, on the proposed Mining Zone on the Ongole-Kurnool road stretch from Cheemakurthi town suburban areas to Marrichetlapalem Junction. Though a few mining company owners attended the meeting, they sought authorities to postpone the meeting in view of the pandemic.