VPT gets ‘Open space’

By SNV Sudhir

Visakkhapatnam, Jan 9, 2013: Objections are being raised against the Visak-hapatnam Port Trust’s (VPT) attempts to construct a housing complex in Mudasarlova, which lies within the catchment area of the reservoir.

Government Orders, upon the direction of the AP High Court, have repeatedly indicated that there could be no new residential colonies nor any polluting activity permitted within the catchment areas of reservoirs as they cater to the drinking water needs of the people, said former senior bureaucrat, EAS Sarma.

The said land is categorized in the Master Plan as 'open space, recreation' and it is said to be a part of the ‘green belt’ earmarked by Vuda.

The land use cannot be routinely converted into residential or commercial or other use without following the procedure laid down in Section 12(3) of the AP Urban Areas (Dev-elopment) Act, 1975.

Under the section, Vuda should issue a public notification of the proposed change in land use, call for objections, consider these carefully and pass a speaking order made known to the public so that anyone concerned could contest it through a well laid out quasi-judicial procedure, said, Mr Sarma.

Since Vuda had not followed this procedure, the proposal in question constitutes an infringement of the Act.

Mudasarlova Reservoir was constructed in 1963 with a designed capacity of 2MLD to cater to the drinking water needs of the city. According to environmental activist J.V. Ratnam, Visakhapatnam’s water bodies were thus getting poisoned because established watershed sanitation norms were being violated.

“A residential colony or an industrial unit within Mudasarlova's catchment will release both bacterial and chemical pollutants which cannot be readily treated and removed. Vuda and GVMC are literally endangering the health of the people to whom GVMC supplies Mudasarlova water for drinking by allowing such toxic pollution into the reservoir. It amounts to an offence under the Environ-ment (Protection) Act, 1956, Water (Prevention & Control of Pollution) Act, 1971 and AP Water, Land, Trees Act, 2002,” Mr Ratnam said.