Even as the government is preparing for the public hearing on environment impact assessment (EIA), farmers of Vemulaghat, one of the villages that would get submerged under the proposed Mallannasagar project, have urged the authorities to give them one month time to read and understand it.
The villagers say that they have sought for a Telugu copy of the draft EIA report, which was handed over to them on Wednesday.
On the same day, officials gave the Telugu version to the panchayat office.
“Since the EIA notification rules of 2006 state that ‘A minimum notice period of 30 days shall be provided to the public for furnishing their response’ and as we were supplied with the copy of draft EIA report only on August 16, we urge the government to provide time till September 16 for the public hearing. This was given to us only after we have submitted an application requesting for the draft copy of EIA,” said Srinivas Reddy, a villager from Vemulaghat.
According to sources, the draft copy of EIA should be made available for public at least one month before conducting of public hearing, and in the case of EIA for Kaleswaram, it should be on or before July 26 as the date for public hearing at Siddipet was scheduled for August 26.
Dilatory move
Though the draft copy of EIA was supposed to be made available to public by July 26 in view of the proposed public hearing on August 26, the draft copy was handed over to the panchayat staff at Vemulaghat only on August 10 and a copy was handed over to the public on demand on August 16.
Display purpose
“We know that it should be for display at panchayat office at least one month before the public hearing. But we were given supplied with the copy on August 10. How can we handover the copy that was meant to be displayed?” asked an official on condition of anonymity.
