PIL filed on dropping port plan

Hyderabad: A Public Interest Litigation has been moved before the Hyderabad High Court challenging the decision of the Centre to drop the proposal to establish major port at Ramayapatnam in Prakasam district and finalise Dugarajapatnam in Nellore district for establishment of the port instead.

Chunduri Ranga Rao, a native of Prakasam district filed a PIL  stating that establishment of port at Dugarajapatnam will cause immense threat to the ecological balance as the proposed site was surrounded by Pulicat Lake, Pulicat Bird Sanctuary, Nellapattu Bird  Sanctuary and the Dry Season Bird Sanctuary.

He informed the court that the Department of Space has addressed a letter to the Ministry of Shipping stating that the establishment of a major port at Dugarajapatnam will be a serious security threat to National Defence and Strategic establishments at Sriharikota such as Satish Dhawan Space Centre and Indian Space Research Organisation.

The petitioner said that constructing a port at Ramayapatnam will not pose such disadvantages, but the Ministry of Shipping has still considered Dugarajapatnam for establishment of a port for extraneous considerations. He urged the court to direct the Centre to set up the major port at Ramayapatnam, as recommended by the erstwhile AP government on September 2, 2012.

Hyderabad High Court: PCB must study power plant impact

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta and Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar of the Hyderabad High Court has directed the Telangana state pollution control board to conduct a study on environmental impact likely to be caused by setting up of a thermal power project in tribal villages of Nalgonda district.

The bench was disposing off a petition by Meghavath Sali and three others of the district seeking the stay of a notice issued by the authorities for conducting a public hearing at Pedaveedu gram panchayat  office to set up a 200 MW power plant by MG Power Project Ltd.

They told the court that the villages of Gurrambodu, Krishna, Thummala, Mancha, Avarenikunta, Anthya, Sulthanpuram and surrounding Thandas will be affected due to pollution caused by the plant. They said they lost their lands for the construction of  Nagarjunasagar project 50 years ago and they were rehabilitated to the present villages and now again they have to migrate to some other place  due to the proposed plant.

The petitioners told the court that they are already suffering from pollution by several cement factories which are adjacent to their villages. They said that on two occasions, the villagers have opposed surrendering their lands for the proposed power project at the public hearings held on Dec. 31, 2013 and Sept. 10, 2014. In spite of that another notice was issued for conducting a public hearing at Pedaveedu gram panchayat which is five kms from the proposed project site.

The bench told the Board to give an opportunity to villagers to put forth their grievances and also carry out a comprehensive study on environmental impact caused by the existing cement factories and that likely from the proposed plant.

Central Administrative Tribunal orders status quo on postings

The Hyderabad bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has directed the  AP and Telangana governments and the Centre to continue Srijana Thummala, assistant collector trainee of Krishna district and L. Shiva Shankar, assistant collector trainee at Guntur in their  posts.

The young IAS officers moved the tribunal challenging their allottment to Telangana cadre. They said they are natives of AP, but the authorities recorded them as Hyderabad natives. While Srijana is a native of Chittoor district, Shiva Shankar belongs to Vizianagaram district. A two-member bench comprising B. Venkateswara Rao and Ms Ranjana Chowdary expressed displeasure at the authorities in committing errors.