Several people's organisations and environment protection groups are organising a ‘jatha' against pollution in the city on March 2 followed by a seminar at the Public Library here on March 3.
People of Visakhapatnam and surrounding areas were bearing the brunt of pollution caused by HPCL, APCL, Coromandel Fertilizers, Hindustan Zinc, NTPC super thermal power plant, Visakhapatnam and Gangavaram ports, Essar Gujarat, RCL, and other industries and establishments, but the officials and people's representatives had failed to take notice of the problem and initiate steps to control pollution, representatives of the organisations said at a press conference here on Wednesday.
Movement for People-Centred Development State convenor K. Babu Rao, its leader J.V. Ratnam, Struggle Committee Against Costal Corridor convenor K.S. Chalam, APCLC district president T. Sreeramamurthy, Struggle Committee Against Privatisation convenor P.V. Ramana, Dalita Vimukti convenor Surla Venkata Ramana and a leader of the committee of residents of old city area fighting against port's pollution Ali Khan addressed the press conference.
They said it was the responsibility of the people to protect the natural resources like water, land, air, groundwater, forest and the sea and they should fight to make Visakhapatnam a pollution-free city.
A professor of Jadavpur University, Amit Bhattacharya, would address the seminar to be held on March 3.
Prof. Babu Rao said the government and its Pollution Control Board had failed to control pollution from the stage of issuing permission to an industry to implementation of pollution control methods after the industry was established. Mr. Ratnam said the programmes conducted by the MPCD and other organisations against pollution made an impact on the people.
