EAS Sarma
The AP High Court has taken suo moto cognisance of the matter of vandalization of Vizag Erramatti Debbalu (EMD) and the matter is pending adjudication. Both the State and the district authorities are respondents in that matter.
I understand that some real estate developers and others are wantonly destroying the site. I am sure that the local Revenue officials have brought this to the District Collector’ s notice.
I am aware that, despite several of us protesting, the authorities have allowed, against all norms of environmental conservation, the Bheemunipatnam Mutually Aided Co-operative Building Society Ltd.(BMACBS) to go ahead with a housing colony at the EMD. This has encouraged others, especially several real estate developers and sand miners to take up illegal sand quarrying, construction activity, violating several Central environmental laws and the State laws. In short, the EMD is being openly destroyed, while the district administration is passively watching.
Whatever be the court judgements and government orders, no construction activity can be allowed without a due process of environment impact assessment and prior statutory environment clearance, as required under the EPA and CRZ. Some parts of the EMD area fall within the CRZ area but no clearance seems to have been obtained by BMACBS for taking up construction work. If it is so, I suggest that the construction activity is stopped forthwith and the Society asked to get the project duly appraised.
The EMD is a part of a system of water courses and drains and the core area of the EMD itself is the bed of a stream. The Supreme Court, in the Tirupati Intellectuals Forum case directed the authorities not to permit any construction within the bed of a water body . Clearly, the construction work going on is prima facie illegal.
Ecologically sensitive lands not to be alienated:
Portion of the EMD attracts the prohibitive directions of the apex court of India in the Jagpal Singh case.
Violation of AP WALTA Act:
The developers have indiscriminately hacked a number of trees without permission of the concerned authorities under WALTA Act. A spot inspection, if conducted immediately, will reveal the havoc.
D-Patta Lands
There are several stretches of lands in and around the EMD covered by D-Pattas. In respect of those lands, the original D-Patta holders alone can cultivate them. If they have alienated those lands to others, such a sale becomes illegal under AP Assigned Lands (Prohibition of Transfer) Act, 1977 and in such cases, the lands get restored to the govt. Any construction undertaken on such lands is clearly illegal, apart from the same also
violating the AP Agricultural Land (Conversion for Non-Agricultural Purposes) Act, 2006 . The ongoing activity would thus be doubly illegal and needs to be proceed against illegal mining.
Some contractors are seem to be carrying on illegal sand quarrying, for which they could not have secured the necessary clearances. Sand mining in the EMD is highly objectionable and it needs to be stopped forthwith. Those engaged in illegal sand mining should be brought to book.
Geo-heritage notification issued by the GSI:
The EMD has been notified by the GSI as a geo-heritage area and it needs to be scrupulously protected. It is one among the few such sites in India and it is unfortunate that the authorities who are expected to protect it have not been able to fulfil their obligation. The EMD is also known to be a pre-historic site with some archeological evidence discovered by the scholars.
Had the State authorities really cared to value this site and taken measures to protect it, they could have shifted the housing society to an alternate location.
I have downloaded a view of the location of the housing society from the website of the BMACBS (bmacbs.com) that shows how the EMD is being replaced by the Society’s “Scheme 1”. From the point of view of Article 48A of the Constitution and the Environment (Protection) Act, this is unacceptable.
Both the District Revenue authorities and VMRDA should apply their minds to the above concerns and stop vandalisation of the EMD without any further delay.
(EAS Sarma, former secretary, Govt of India)