VISAKHAPATNAM: Former Union energy secretary EAS Sarma has felt that the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) apparently informed the AP High Court initially that the Rushikonda project was limited to 9.88 acres only.
In a letter to Leena Nandan, Secretary of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Sarma said when the concerned citizens contradicted this and Google Earth imagery clearly exposed the APTDC’s misinformation to the court, initially it tried to contend that the area measurement through Google Earth imagery might be inaccurate, but later stated that the project work did extend beyond 9.88 acres. The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) allowed the APTDC to undertake such a large project in gross violation of building rules, till the civil society made a hue and cry on the issue, he informed.
The MoEFCC team should tread cautiously and submit an authentic report on Rushikonda to the High Court. The inspection team should evaluate the APTDC’s compliance with the other conditions precedent to the CRZ clearance letter and inform the court, in addition to taking action on its own, he stressed.
Sarma further said the project in question is located within CRZ limits and situated on a hill where construction work is prohibited according to the master plan of the Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority (VMRDA), which clearly envisaged conservation of ecology, including hills. Despite the concerns expressed by some ecologists, the MoEFCC had chosen to clear the project.
The total project work, according to the assurance given at that time by the APTDC was to be confined to 9.88 acres only. However, the APTDC had undertaken extensive excavation and construction activity over a much larger extent, compared to what it had stated to the MoEFCC and dumped the waste material along Rushikonda beach for 1 km stretch, spoiling its aesthetic beauty, in violation of the CRZ conditions stipulated by the MoEFCC. The APTDC also suppressed the fact that it was extracting groundwater in the project complex, though drawing water from borewells in the CRZ area is prohibited, he explained.
The APTDC had obtained the CRZ clearance from the MoEFCC on the promise that it would undertake only modification of an existing complex and the area of which was 9.88 acres. The MoEFCC had accorded the CRZ clearance only to that extent, because any further extension of construction on Rushikonda, that too in the CRZ limits, would be deleterious to conservation of ecology of the hill.
In violation of the stipulation, APTDC has, over the last several months, ravaged the hill, far beyond what it stated, while getting the CRZ clearance. The ugly scar over the hill could be seen by those standing near Rushikonda. It was also distressing to see the APTDC and its contractors dumping waste along Rushikonda beach, he deplored.