Pandalaneni Srimannarayana, who challenged the construction of new capital Amaravati in an ecologically sensitive area on Wednesday filed a non-compliance application against the Government of Andhra Pradesh in the National Green Tribunal.
The application, which is expected to be taken up in the general hearing of the original petition coming up tomorrow, has filed under Section 25 to Section 28 of National Green Tribunal Act.
Earlier on October 10, convinced of the petitioner’s information regarding the activities going on in the Project area, the Tribunal asked the state government, the proponent of the Capital project, “not to indulge in any activity within the project area before obtaining necessary environmental clearance (EC). The Tribunal also directed the state of Andhra Pradesh not to carry out any operations of the clearing of the land falling in the project area without obtaining the EC to the project. And state government had been given two week time to file its affidavit.
Today, the petitioner argued that the state government did not post any information regarding the environmental clearance on its website. Even the MOEF website also did not give any information regarding the much needed EC. The petitioner also brought to the notice of the NGT information about the spectacular foundation stone laying ceremony performed on October 22, 2015 by clearing land including the banana plantations against the October 10 instructions of the Tribunal.
As the project proponent actions are bound to cause irreversible harm to the environment, the petitioner urged the court to take action against the state of Andhra Pradesh under Section 28 and other relevant provisions of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 for violating the order dated 27.07.2015 and 10.10.2015 and issue suitable instruction in order to protect the environment, wetlands, flood plains in the capital-notified area in the interest of justice. The petitioner is represented by advocates Sanjay Parikh, Karanam Sravan Kumar and Arul Gupta.