AP: Plea for Centre’s intervention to stop Hetero damage

Former union Secretary EAS Sarma has called for Centre's immediate intervention to stop the multiple statutory infringements committed by Hetero Drugs in Anakapalle district causing environmental pollution

Visakhapatnam: Former union Secretary EAS Sarma has called for Centre’s immediate intervention to stop the multiple statutory infringements committed by Hetero Drugs in Anakapalle district here causing environmental pollution and resulting in several accidents in which its own workers were severely injured.

In a letter addressed to the Secretary of union Ministry of Environments, Forests, and Climate Change Leela Nandan here on Tuesday, he alleged that the company, as usual, had tried to lay a pipeline to let out effluents into the nearby sea without caring to obtain permission from the Ministry and the local pollution control board. Unable to get relief from the local authorities, those affected among the local people had to seek intervention from the National Green Tribunal (NGT), he recalled.

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“Unfortunately, there has been collusion between the company’s promoters and the local officials as a result of which they continue to defy the laws and cause suffering to the local villagers. I understand that the company’s pipeline passes through government land, especially notified forest land but it is going ahead with the pipeline project without caring to get permission, especially clearance under the Forest (Conservation) Act, as revealed in a reply given by the local Forest officials in response to an application. It is evident that the company’s excavators and other heavy machinery are playing havoc with the sandy portion of CRZ I adjacent to the sea. Apparently, the company has undertaken such a destructive activity with police support, a matter that certainly calls for an investigation, as prima facie, there seems to be continuing collusion between the company’s promoters and the local officials,” he stated.

Dr Sarma observed that the deployment of heavy machinery and deep excavation of sand, without expert supervision and regulation, would have already caused considerable damage to the local marine resources. All this is allowed to happen with MEFCC’s regional office passively remaining inactive, with the APPCB behaving as though it is unaware of it and the district officials blissfully colluding with the company’s promoters to do what they like in violation of the rule of law. It is ironic that those who are expected to enforce the rule of law have become its violators and those, especially the local fishing community, whose interests need to be protected are left in the lurch, forcing them to seek judicial intervention, he stated.

“Why should taxpayers bear the burden of maintaining highly paid government machinery at the Centre and in the State, when they sit in luxury, allowing predatory private companies to defy the law? I hope that you, on behalf of MEFCC, ponder over this!,” he urged.