Four killed in police firing at thermal power project protest
|
COMMENTS 
Four villagers died and over 60 were injured when police opened fire at fishermen and farmers protesting construction of a coal-based power plant by Nagarjuna Construction Company in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district
Four people were killed and over 60 injured when police opened fire and resorted to a lathi-charge to quell angry agitators protesting the setting up of a 2,640 MW thermal power project by the Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) at a beela in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, on July 14, 2010.
Trouble broke out when villagers prevented workers from clearing bushes at the site. They were told to stop work and leave the area. An argument ensued and police brought in from Vizag and Vizianagaram intervened.
The 5,000-odd fishermen and farmers massed from 24 villages demanded that construction work on the project be abandoned. They then turned their ire on members of the media alleging that the media had ignored their movement against the power plant and were in collusion with the NCC management. An angry mob burnt two-wheelers belonging to media persons and attacked two police vehicles present at the site.
When the situation threatened to spiral out of control, the police opened fire. Sompeta and Baruva, located around 110 km from Srikakulam town in north coastal Andhra Pradesh and surrounding villages, soon turned into a war zone as both sides fought a pitched battle.
Later in the day, the police raided houses and roughed up villagers. Even a heavy downpour in the evening did not deter them as they went about rounding up protestors with the help of video clips. They also attacked Moura hospital in Sompeta, run by D Rama Rao, an environmentalist. They beat him up along with patients at the hospital.
There has been stiff opposition to the NCC power plant as fishermen and farmers who depend on the marshy wetland, called beela, fear that industrial effluents will pollute the land and kill marine life.
The company proposes to set up the thermal power plant with an investment of Rs 12,000 crore on a 1,500 acre site. The government allotted it 900 acres; another 600 acres were acquired by paying Rs 3 lakh per acre to land title-holders.
Environmentalists and local inhabitants oppose the project saying it will destroy the livelihood of farmers and fishermen living in 24 villages in and around Sompeta, and ruin the ecology. Local inhabitants made their views clear at a public hearing last August.
In the past six months, residents of about two dozen villages in and around Sompeta formed a joint action committee to spearhead their agitation against the proposed 2,640 MW power plant. Their opposition was conveyed to district officials as well as members of the National Environmental Protection Committee, both at public hearings, most notably in January this year, and elsewhere.
Itchapuram legislator P Sairaj had pointed out back then that though the state government had sanctioned four power plants to the constituency, it hadn’t bothered to educate the fishermen. “Their livelihood should not be jeopardized, while it was equally important to protect the environment in the sensitive coastal zone,” he argued.
According to a team of experts from the Bombay Natural History Society, which visited the project site, beela is the last surviving swamp and wetland area in coastal Andhra Pradesh. It is a precious biological wetland, also a Ramsar Convention area. Therefore no one can touch it. It is part of marshy lands on the Andhra Pradesh coast and an integral part of the surface-cum-marine ecosystem that supports a variety of flora and fauna, apart from providing a livelihood to thousands of families. The Pedda Beela wetland is linked to two other wetlands -- Chinna Beela and Tampara near Idduvanipalem where it finally joins the sea. The Bombay Natural History team had submitted a report to the standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife but the environment ministry bowed to corporate interests and accorded the project clearance.
Source: The Hindu, July 15, 2010
The Indian Express, July 15, 2010
Press Trust of India, July 14, 2010