Hindustan Times: Mumbai: Wednesday, July 19, 2017.
Former Andhra
Pradesh Information Commissioner P. Vijaya Babu slammed the state government on
Monday, for alleged encroachments on the banks of the river Krishna.
Babu, who is
also the founder of Better Andhra Pradesh (BAP), accused government officials
of being aware of these encroachments, and asked them to respect the law and
verdicts of the courts.
Speaking to
mediapersons at Vijayawada, he said that the gross violation of the rules and
regulations were resulting in pollution of the river.
He also
alleged that the contamination level of the river was high, but the government
was supplying the same water to the people of Krishna and Guntur districts.
He claimed
that this would cause an adverse affect on public health in the state.
“If one walks
along the Krishna Karakatta, no proper drainage system is found. So, where are
the effluents going? Obviously into the river. So, people of Vijayawada, Guntur
and neighbouring places are consuming polluted water. Despite chlorination,
there is no way to determine that all the bacteria in those treated water have
been eliminated,” TNIE quoted him as saying.
He said that
the government had gone back on its promise of removing illegal constructions
along the river bank.
"The CM
himself got a building built against the River Conservancy Act as his official
residence. The Act specifies that no structure should be built within 500
meters from the river course. On the river bank in Krishna district, there are
18 buildings and on the side of Guntur district there are 48 buildings. Water
Resources Minister D. Umamaheswara Rao who visited the illegal structures
promised action and issued notices to all the owners in 2015 but there was no
follow up,” he added.
He demanded
that the buildings be vacated, and said that the CM could not get away by
releasing a Government Order, as they could not amend the Constitution and the
law.
Citing the
river conservation act, he said that there shouldn't be any construction within
500 metres of the river.
Referring to
recent guidelines issued by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), he said that
Naidu violated the law.
.JPG)
.JPG)
