Environmentalists and leaders of people’s organisations condemned destruction of natural resources, environment and handing over the nation’s natural resources to MNCs in the name of development, at a two-day national seminar which commenced in Visakhapatnam on Saturday.
They called upon the people to put up a united fight against destructive development. The meet is being organised by the Struggle Committee Against Coastal Corridor with the theme of destructive development.
Human rights activist G. Haragopal said the mankind was moving towards destructive development and in India it started with the country accepting a loan from IMF in 1983. Rajiv Gandhi, naïve to politics, became Prime Minister and started new economic policies in the name of technology development. At present Manmohan Singh, Kapil Sibal, Mantek Singh Ahluwalia, and Chidambaram, who had either failed to get elected by the people at one time or other were ruling the roost now and systematically handing over the country to big investors and American imperailsits, Prof. Haragopal said.
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“A united struggle would only ensure democracy to prosper in its true sense and unadulterated human relations”, he said. Indians were not alone in the struggle against destructive development as similar struggles were going on in more than 80 countries, he said.
Environmental activist Praful Kumar Samantray from Bhubaneswar slammed the governments for claiming that mining was for the development of the people when crores of Girijans and their habitats would be destroyed and the rivers and streams in the plain areas vanish, resulting in severe strain on the people. He recalled that it was people’s struggle led by Nachikalinga which stopped bauxite mining from taking place in Narayanapatna in Odisha.
Speaking on power and its generation, analyst P. Thimma Reddy said in spite of the thermal and atomic power stations being the main cause for global warming, the rulers were keen to go ahead with establishing many such plants, instead of looking for alternate power sources. Indiscriminate use of power by some was causing many problems, he said.
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Development for the sake of people was noticed nowhere in the country, said State president of APCLC Seshaiah. People have a lot of faith in judiciary but the only the rich were getting benefit. Chalasani Prasad of Virasam said globalisation, privatisation, and liberalisation were the three enemies of the world. Leader of Sompeta Environemnt Protection Committee Y. Krishnamurthy wanted every political party to explain its stand on environment and destructive development.State vice-president of POW M. Lakshmi spoke on those killed in Gangavaram, Kakarapalli, and Sompeta. Convenor of the host body K.S. Chalam, J.V. Ratnam of the Movement for People-Centred Development, S.V. Ramana of Dalita Vimukthi, K. Ravi of slum-dwellers welfare body, Kuna Ramam of anti-Nagarjuna Agrichem agitation, P.V. Ramana of anti-privatisation struggle committee, Madhu of DTF, T. Sreerama Murthy of APCLC and others spoke. The venue, Ambedkar Bhavan, was named after the martyrs of Gangavaram, Kakarapalli, and Sompeta martyrs. Cultural troupes performed.