PM urged to cancel Amaravati visit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi would do well to keep away from the foundation-stone-laying ceremony on Vijayadasami day (October 22) for Andhra Pradesh’s capital Amaravati in Guntur district, according to former Union Energy Secretary EAS Sarma.

In an interview here on Monday, he said the Andhra Pradesh government was violating all statutory provisions and environmental norms in going ahead with the capital project unilaterally.

Panel recommendations A committee was constituted by the Union Home Ministry headed by the late Sivaramakrishnan to go into the matter of choosing a site for the new capital city. In doing so, the committee was instructed “to cause the least possible dislocation to existing agriculture systems as well as to ensure minimum resettlement of people and their habitations and also to ensure preservation of local ecology and natural features like water bodies.”

The committee was also asked to take into account vulnerability assessment such as flooding, cyclones and other natural calamities.

The committee had made certain recommendations. But, ignoring all of them, the State government unilaterally chose the Vijayawada-Guntur region, Sarma alleged.

He said that no vulnerability study had been undertaken or any environmental clearance obtained and the National Green Tribunal has also expressed concern in an interim order on October 10.

Plea to PM “In such a situation, it would be highly improper for the Prime Minister to affix his stamp of approval to the project by laying the foundation stone,” he said.

Sarma said he had written to the Prime Minister that the Amaravati project would only benefit the realtors and even the common people of the Vijayawada-Guntur region would not gain anything from it. It will cause regional imbalances, he added.

sarma.rs@thehindu.co.in