Date:08/04/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/04/08/stories/2005040803300500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Greenpeace activists stage protest

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, APRIL 7. Greenpeace activists confronted the Government at the Secretariat here on Thursday asking it to abandon its plans to set up ship-breaking yard at the Kakinada port. If allowed it would prove to be the death knell for the livelihood of fishermen, pristine beaches and the mangrove forest, they said.

The activists wore "skeleton suits" and held banners depicting death and destruction in the existing ship-breaking yard at Alang in Gujarat and the effect of pollution in Patancheru near here. They called upon the Government to "save Kakinada" and shouted slogans of "No Alang and no Patancheru" at Kakinada. They were arrested by police and released later.

Addressing a press conference, Ramapathy Kumar, Toxic Campaigner of Greenpeace India, T. Rajyalaxmi, President of the Society for Promotion of Integrated Coastal Area Management, and Naicker, former MLA, said the Government was inviting a fresh chemical crisis at Kakinada, even as its was unable to control the impact of the unregulated growth of chemical and bulk drug industry in Medak.