The State government’s plans to construct a temporary capital at Velagapudi, one of the 29 villages that form the capital city, Amaravati, is likely to face legal hurdles.
Terming the government’s move as contempt of National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, petitioner Pandalaneni Srimannarayana said: “The matter will be brought to the notice of the tribunal.”
The government, however, seems to be in no hurry to respond to it.
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The AP Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) and the government have decided to go ahead with the plans to construct the temporary capital. The government continued to claim that it had obtained all clearances.
Mr. Srimannarayana said that the tribunal had ordered the government not to take up any constructions without conducting environmental impact assessment (EIA).
“There is no veracity in the claims of the government that it conducted the EIA and obtained clearance from the agencies concerned. The NGT has stayed all the activity, including levelling of land there. The State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) clearance, which the government is claiming to have obtained, is not correct,” he said.
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The petitioner said that the SEIAA was not competent to issue the clearances as the project was spread over more that 217 sq. km. The government had stage managed the issue at the time of foundation laying ceremony.
“There is a contempt case against the government,” he said. Former MLA Adusumilli Jayaprakash said that the CRDA was resorting to lies. The officials were providing information to the court and people in a most deceitful manner. There was no parity in affidavits filed in the NGT and the courts. The CRDA negated its own stance that there were no wetlands in the capital city area, he said, and added that the Kondaveeti Vagu inundates 10,000 acres of land.
Professor and social activist C. Ramachandraiah said that the population projections for Amaravati were not scientific. Statistics in the last three decades indicate that 40 lakh population in the capital city was not possible, he said.
‘We got all clearances’
On Friday, Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana, however, parried questions on petitions filed in the NGT.
He even parried a question on whether the SEIAA was competent to issue clearances for such a mega project.
He merely said: “We got all clearances.” When insisted whether there was a stay, he said: “I need to study the matter. I cannot make off the cuff remarks.”