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The Telugu Desam Party will oppose and make all efforts to stop the survey work for the Petroleum, Chemicals, Petro-chemicals Investment Region (PCPIR) between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada, according to Mr Y. Ramakrishnudu, senior Telugu Desam party leader and former finance minister and speaker of the State Assembly.
He made the announcement here on Wednesday at a press meet. The PCPIR passes through the Tuni Assembly constituency in East Godavari district which Mr Ramakrishnudu represented for more than two decades till 2009 when he lost the election for the first time.
Mr Ramakrishnudu said the PCPIR project was being opposed on various grounds by activists, environmentalists and others on the apprehension that it would marginalise fishermen and other coastal communities and would lead to large-scale marine pollution as well. The activists were alleging that some of the petro-chemical units, which the western companies could not run in their own countries due to stringent pollution norms, would be relocated in the PCPIR.
“The State Government is not responding to, or addressing, these concerns and obstinately going ahead with the land survey plans in the area. A consultant has been appointed and the survey work has already begun in Visakhapatnam district and it is now reaching East Godavari. We will oppose it,” he said.
New land acquisition act
He said it was also not correct or proper on the part of the State Government to take up these surveys even before the enactment of the new land acquisition act by the Union Government, as it would adversely affect the interests of farmers and others. He questioned the necessity for taking up the survey in a hurry in such circumstances and urged the State Government to put on hold the survey work for sometime.
He said the argument advanced by the State Government that it wanted speedy industrial growth in the area was not very convincing, as the Government was not even in a position to supply power to the existing industrial units, many of which were incurring heavy losses due to power-cuts.
Mr Ramakrishnudu also expressed the opinion that the Nagarjuna Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd (NFCL) here should not set up its third unit here at its premises in the town as a part of its expansion project and set up the unit elsewhere in the district, with proper pollution control measures.
He also questioned the promises of the Chief Minister, Mr N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, of providing 15 lakh jobs to the youth in the State over the next three years. He wondered where and how all the promised jobs would be generated, whether in the private sector or the Government sector. He wanted the State Government to publish a white paper on the issue and specify the details.
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