Abandon plans for thermal power Project at Sompet: Lok Satta

The Lok Satta Party today demanded that the Government categorically declare the thermal power project proposed at Sompet in Srikakulam district stands cancelled. “The Government’s silence on the fate of the project even after the Environmental Appraisal Committee has withdrawn all its clearances is intriguing.”

The party also demanded that the Government withdraw all the cases against agitators against the thermal plant and go to the assistance of the injured in police firing.

Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan put forth the demands when a party’s fact-finding committee on the Sompet project submitted its final report to him at the party headquarters today.

The committee, headed by Mr. Bhisetty Babji (State party Vice President), comprised Prof D. Vishnu Murthy (State party Secretary), Mr. K. Poli Naidu (Srikakulam district President) and Mr. Tammineni Annam Naidu (member, party Legal Cell).

Lok Satta Party Working President D. V. V. S. Varma released the committee’s findings to the media.

The committee found Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC) guilty of initiating work on the project even as cases concerning the site were pending in local courts, the High Court, and the tribunal. NCC sought environmental clearance for the project in August 2008 itself while the Government handed over the site to it in May-June 2009. It sought environmental clearance concealing the fact that there is a water body in the proposed site. The Environmental Appraisal Committee too gave its clearance without verifying ground realities.

As local people opposed initiation of work at the site by the construction firm on July 14, 2010, the company-hired anti-social elements brutally assaulted them. Even the police opened fire on agitators without using rubber bullets to disperse them.

Dr. JP suggested that the Land Acquisition Act be amended and an autonomous institution constituted to ensure justice to all stakeholders in land acquisition for projects.