Human Rights Forum: Stop misuse of Beela

Visakhapatnam: The Human Rights Forum (HRF) demanded that the government initiate steps immediately to ensure that Sompeta wetland (known locally as beela) in Srikakulam district is not misused further by Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC).

Attempts being made by the NCC to set up an industrial park should not be allowed since it will devastate the lives of thousands of farmers and fisherfolk in the region and will destroy the area that has ecological significance, the HRF said.

A HRF team, including KV Jagannadha Rao, HRF AP State vice-president K Sudha, HRF AP State general secretary and VS Krishna, HRF AP and TS Coordination Committee member, visited the Beela lands.

The members said that they were shocked to see land abutting the beela dug up in an extent of 200 acres ostensibly to undertake aqua farming by Savitra Agri Industrial Park Private Limited, a company set up by the NCC.

Following protests by local farmers, the digging, which took place in mid May this year was halted. It may be recalled that the government facilitated the proposal by the NCC to set up a thermal plant in the area by alienating 972 acres, constituting a substantial portion of the Beela, through the GO No. 1107 in 2008.

Ever since, there was a sustained agitation by the people against the project leading to three farmers losing their lives in police firing on July 14, 2010. Subsequently, the National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA) revoked the environmental clearance accorded to the project, VS Krishna said.

“We emphasised that any industrial activity in a precious wetland is flawed since it will destroy rich biodiversity and subvert the livelihood of farmers, fisherfolk and members of the occupational classes. In fact, any such construction is in contravention of the Wetlands (Conservation and Management) Rules as well as the Biological Diversity Act. The NEAA order vindicated our stand,” VS Krishna said.

Instead of resuming the 972 acres given to the NCC as well as several hundred acres of the wetland adjacent to the extent that the NCC had purchased from farmers in a patently illegal manner, the government issued the GO No. 329 in September 2015 facilitating the setting up of a ‘multi-product industrial zone’ by the NCC.

This compounds the collective criminality. The HRF demanded that the government take immediate steps to halt any construction by the NCC in the area and GO No 329 must be rescinded.