In the days where people’s representatives are working for their own benefit, North Andhra Graduate Constituency MLC M.V.S. Sarma taking out a cycle yatra on people’s issues is laudable, said environmentalist T. Sivaji Rao. He was speaking before flagging off the 33-day 2,000-km cycle yatra being taken up by the Jana Vignana Vedika calling for comprehensive sustainable development of North Andhra region at Convent Junction here on Sunday. The MLC along with some others is going to traverse the breadth of the three North Andhra districts of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam, with the exception of the hilly terrain of the Agency areas.
No clean techIndustrialisation that has been taken up in the North Andhra districts was predominantly polluting and the policy makers have not tried to enforce the industries to select clean technologies, the MLC said. The pharma industry and other chemical industries which spew out poisonous gases into the atmosphere were relocated to this region and the regulatory agencies like the Pollution Control Board were toothless and unable to ensure that the pollution was minimised, Mr. Sarma said. He faulted the government for not promoting clean industries like IT in the region.
Referring to the RINL setting up units in Rae Bareli and in West Bengal, he said it was unfortunate that the government was not supporting industrialisation of the region by not promoting steel using and ancillary industries in the region.
Faulting the people’s representatives for not taking up the concerns of the people, he urged voters to pull them up when they come to them asking for votes in the forthcoming general elections.
JVV State vice-president Trimurthulu Reddy, Mahesh, Easwar Rao, and Amma Naidu are accompanying the MLC in the first leg of the expedition. In each city and town the local activists are expected to join the yatra.
