‘CRDA and govt. have misled NGT on the capital project’

Social activists to file review petition in the tribunal

Social activist E.A.S. Sarma addressing a round- table conference in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.

The A.P. Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) and the State government have misled the National Green Tribunal (NGT) by giving false declarations, speakers alleged at a roundtable on ‘Amaravati – NGT Judgement’.

The conference was organised by the Centre for Women’s Studies of Andhra University here on Wednesday.

‘Verification not done’

The former CRDA Commissioner had given a false declaration to the NGT that the proposed capital city area was a barren land. The NGT believed the official without any physical verification. Lands had been grabbed from the farmers in the name of land pooling, they alleged.

Former IAS officer and social activist E.A.S. Sarma said that he, along with two other social activists Bolisetty Satyanarayana and Srimannarayana, would file a review petition in the NGT.

At the time of bifurcation, the Central government had constituted the Justice Sivaramakrishnan Committee seeking a report on the proposed capital for the residuary State.

The capital should be small and modern technology could be leveraged to establish a decentralised set-up, but Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who is known to be tech-savvy, gave away that technological advantage by concentrating all development in one region.

Farmers’ complaint

The State government had dumped the Justice Sivaramakrishnan Committee report, Mr. Sarma said, and alleged that the farmers had complained to the World Bank team that they were forced to part with their lands under threats by the police and government officials.

The inspection committee of the World Bank had gone on a field visit to the affected villages and was convinced that the farmers had been forced to part with their lands.

Mr. Sarma, however, said imposition of nine additional conditions on the government for the implementation of the capital project by the NGT indicated that the tribunal had no faith in the government.

Flood zone

Mr. Satyanarayana said the capital area, located on the banks of the Krishna, had a history of flooding. In 2009, floods inundated several villages and people had to be evacuated using boats, he said.

The CRDA denied it, but it had been proved wrong by its own project report and government records, he said.

Praja Spandana president C.S. Rao, former Principal of AU College of Engineering R.V. Rama Rao, faculty members of the university, students, and representatives of NGOs attended.