Big guns in environmental conservation such as Magsaysay award winner Rajendra Singh and former IAS officer E.A.S. Sarma have changed their focus from Amaravati to the residence of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu located on the picturesque banks of the Krishna.
While Mr. Rajendra Singh, a water conservationist, wrote a letter to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), Mr. Sarma shot off an e-mail to Chief Secretary Dinesh Kumar.
Mr. Singh, talking to The Hindu on telephone, said he had written a letter to the NGT that the Chief Minister was residing in a building that was constructed “illegally” on the flood plains of the Krishna.
He said, according to the laws of the land, there should not be any permanent structure on the river banks.
“I have written a letter to NGT chairman Justice Swatanter Kumar about the illegal construction on the Krishna flood plains and asked him to intervene,” Mr. Singh said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Sarma, who has also filed a petition in the NGT, wrote a letter to Mr. Dinesh Kumar about the “illegal structures on the banks of river Krishna and sought urgent action.”
Mr. Sarma attached several NGT and government orders to show that the construction was illegal.
The letter to the Chief Secretary quoted an order passed by the NGT on August 26, 2013, which said: “We, hereby, prohibit any new construction in the entire eco-sensitive zone and more particularly on the river bed and river banks of the main rivers and tributaries.”
‘Nadi Parirakshna Yatra’
Mr. Singh is scheduled to come to Amaravati on August 1, from where he is going to start the ‘Krishna Nadi Parirakshna Yatra’.
He has an appointment with the APCRDA Commissioner on August 2.
