Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Coastal Protection Movement vows to prove State wrong

VIJAYAWADA: Challenging Minister for Infrastructure, Airports and Ports Mopidevi Venkata Ramana Rao for an open debate on how much land was being allotted for the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) proposed to be set up under the coastal corridor, representatives of the Coastal Protection Movement, a coalition of 70 people’s organisations, on Saturday announced that they were ready to prove that large extents of land were being alienated in favour of the corridor.

The members, who met here to discuss their future course of action, decided to launch a struggle against the government to protect the coastal area and its people from the proposed projects.

Speaking to the media, Korivi Vinay Kumar and K. Sudha, representatives of the movement, said that the proposed coastal corridor would ruin the environs of coastal districts from Srikakulam to Nellore. Clean environs of the coastal area would be polluted with chemicals and gases.

“Though the government’s plan is to develop coastal corridor in a stretch of 438 km along the coast, the Chief Minister and the Minister concerned are maintaining that there will not be any allocation of land for the project. The Minister announced that no land allocation was done so far. But we are ready to prove that his statement is wrong,” they said.

The government planned to construct three SEZs, 27 theme parks, 14 minor ports, two major ports, three airports and 36 thermal power plants in the first phase of the project, they said, alleging that “the government has even issued orders for acquisition of land for the proposed Petrochemical Investment Region but when people raised objections, it is trying to misguide them by giving wrong statements.”

Accusing the government of encouraging private sector at the cost of the livelihood of the poor, the activists observed that thousands of families would lose their livelihood, once the project materialised.“We will create awareness among the public about the consequences of the project and make them join hands and fight against the government,” they asserted. Representatives of the movement B. Ramakrishna Raju, T. Sankar. J.V. Ratnam and I. Satyanarayana were present.

Meanwhile, AIYF decided to launch a State-wide agitation for three days from November 3, opposing the corridor. On November 5, they wil organise a bicycle and motorcycle rally in city.

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