Well-known water conservationist Rajendra Singh on Sunday said creating Amaravati, the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh, on the floodplains of river Krishna would be disastrous as there was every possibility of the city getting drowned.
At a seminar “Need for Nature Protection” here, he said “What is the need to take land from farmers who give you four crops per year to develop the capital city. This is not a welfare state. The Chief Minister has chosen the wrong path and he, apparently, is not listening to the experts.”
Mr. Singh, popularly known as the ‘Waterman of India’ said he had rejuvenated more than 40 rivers in his 40-long years of association with nature and reiterated that his current mission was to rejuvenate river Krishna.
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He said the new capital city was not coming up as per the directives of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the people, who would live there, would face the wrath of nature. “The landscape spruced by the rulers at Amaravati will be proved dangerous.”
Mr. Singh said the need for nature’s protection was important as the modern rulers were using it for making profits. “If the river is sick, civil society will be sick. So it is important that rivers are rejuvenated.”
He said a river should have three rights: the land, the flow and the cleanliness. “All three aspects of river Krishna are in danger owing to the huge capital city coming up at Amaravati.”
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‘Quality of life hit’
Professor Vikram Soni said the quality of life, both in cities and villages, was coming down. “A plethora of issues are haunting the cities such as pollution, traffic, drainage and drinking water while the villages are witnessing migration and poor patronage for agriculture.”
Architect Romi Khosala said the present model of development was a huge failure and the time had come to think about involving natural and not the artificial infrastructure.
Professor P.V. Rajagopal said Amaravati, coming up close to Vijayawada, was the best example for greed-based city when it was supposed to be need-based one. “By grabbing the land from farmers, destroying river and disturbing environment, we are creating a greed-based capital.”
“In the name of development, what we are developing are ugly cities as we are keen on aping the western countries. The need of the hour is to use collective wisdom by taking into consideration opinions of experts from various fields,” he felt.