Date:01/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/01/stories/2008050154600500.htm

Andhra Pradesh

Cement unit conducts public hearing

Staff Reporter

TANGEDA (GUNTUR DT.): A naxalite-affected village for decades is now longing for development, and the proposed cement factory by Bhavya Cements Limited in the village has come as a welcome gesture.

The entire village turned up for the environmental public hearing conducted at the site on Wednesday. A small group of 30 persons, however, created a flutter and tension in the village for some time by pitching a tent on the road leading to Dachepally and stopping the car of District Revenue Officer G. Joshi Babu asking him to go back as none in the village wanted the factory to be set up there. Ironically, the DRO, who was supposed to preside over the meeting and register the protest of the people to be sent to Ministry of Environment and Forests, went back without coming to the public hearing venue.

This created a major flutter in the village, as some 800 persons who gathered there could see that car going back at 11.30 a.m. and wanted to take up a fight with the small group opposed to the plant. But, the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board Environmental Engineer prevailed upon them and called the Member Secretary of the APPCB, District Collector B. Venkatesham explaining the whole situation.

The DRO was then directed by the Collector to go back to the venue and conduct public hearing. The meeting, which began three hours behind schedule, went on smoothly and, except for a couple of descenting speeches, a majority of the villagers and environmentalists approved of the cement factory, which promises to use the latest technology to curb air pollution. The only technology that was not envisaged in this was the ‘heat recovery system’ so that the ozone layer did not get damaged and the company earned ‘Carbon Credits’ in international market.