The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has decided to challenge the notification issued by the AP Pollution Control Board for conducting a public hearing at Nakkapalli in Visakhapatnam district on December 18 on the proposed Visakhapatnam-Kakinada Petroleum, Chemicals, Petro-chemical Investment Region (PCPIR).
At a press conference here, party State secretariat member Ch Narsinga Rao said the government had ignored the opposition to the project from the villagers who adopted resolutions against it. He alleged that the project would turn “the coast between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada into dumping yard for hazardous chemicals.”
He said that in response to a petition filed by some of the affected persons the AP High Court in 2011 had stated that the land acquisition involved in some of the cases posed many problems. The court sought to know whether the State Government had paid attention to all the problems and whether adequate compensation in terms of money apart from resettlement and rehabilitation was being provided to the affected persons.
The government had failed so far to file a counter affidavit detailing the action contemplated in response to the petition, which had opposed acquisition of 17,800 acres for five special economic zones on a stretch of 140 km between Visakhapatnam and Kakinada, he said.
Narasinga Rao urged the State Government to drop the PCPIR project in the public interest.