Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

Eerie calm prevails at Chintapalli

VISAKHAPATNAM: An eerie calm prevails over Chintapalli. The busy roads of this mandal headquarter, that are normally bustling with tribals, wear a deserted look with people preferring to remain indoors. The heavy police deployment on the streets seems to make up for the absence of the public.

This is the scene at Chintapalli with hardly 30 hours to go for the ‘public hearing’ to be held on Friday. “This is not public hearing but ‘police hearing’. I wonder for whose benefit the whole exercise is being conducted,” quipped a tribal leader who preferred anonymity. Police check posts have been erected everywhere and the movement of tribals has been literally curtailed with threats of frisking in the name of a possible Maoist attack.

“Coffee seeds are dropping to the ground but the tribals are not gathering courage to collect them apprehending unnecessary harassment by the cops. Our people are totally opposed to mining which was made clear at the mandal parishad meets on a couple of occasions in the past,” he says.

The hills on which bauxite mining is proposed have over a dozen natural springs that meet the drinking water needs of the tribals apart from providing irrigation to their crops.

Bauxite refining is a water-intensive industry and the project would lead to contamination of water sources. For every five tons of bauxite refined, a ton of aluminium would be obtained but it would also generate four tons of residue. It would have disastrous consequences on the environment.

According to conservative estimates while the foreign company would make an annual profit of Rs.13,000 crores by selling aluminium in the world market, the State Government and the tribals would get only a few crores of rupees. The tribals would have to bear the brunt of water contamination, destruction of aquifers and people of the plains would have to put up with reduced reservoir levels.

“The project is a violation of the Supreme Court judgment in the Samata case that held that mining in scheduled areas should be done only by tribals or by Government agencies like the AP Mining Development Corporation on their behalf,” the president of the Forum for Better Visakha E.A.S. Sarma told The Hindu.

“Tribals cannot even think of getting jobs in the refinery as it would require specialised skills,” he said.

“Tribal Advisory Council (TAC) meets have not been convened so far. The Government should hold another Environmental Public Hearing (EPH) after following the due procedures,” demands R. Ravi of Samata.

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