MOFE committee to assess violations in Rushikonda in December first week

Visakhapatnam: A Division Bench of the AP High Court on Wednesday adjourned the Rushikonda case to December 27 following a submission made by the ministry of environment, forest that a five-member expert committee would assess the extent of violations in the construction of the AP tourism development corporation’s luxury tourist retreat there.

The bench was led by Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh and comprising Justice Raghunandan Rao.

The committee would study this in the first week of December. Its chairman is K Gowrappan, an adviser to Chennai-based H2O Engineering and Technologies. The committee members are Manik Mahapatra, a scientist in the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, D. Sowmya, a Central Pollution Control Board scientist from Chennai, P. Suresh Babu, a scientist of MoEF&CC, Vijayawada sub-office, and CPWD executive engineer.

The PIL was filed by Visakhapatnam East TD MLA Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu and Jana Sena corporator Murthy Yadav against the violations of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms and other relevant laws in the process.

The High Court had directed the MoEF&CC to take an appropriate decision within three weeks on the constructions undertaken by the APTDC on the ecologically sensitive hilltop, by considering the report filed by an expert committee nominated by the court.

The High Court had also asked the MoEF&CC to examine whether the violations claimed by the state government were “minor” or warranted cancellation or withdrawal of the clearance granted to it.