Report on power plant urged

VIJAYAWADA, March 5: Villagers of Ibrahimpatnam urged the government to distribute sufficient copies of the Environment Impact Asse-ssment (EIA) report prepared by the Andhra Prad-esh Pollution Control Board on the proposed 182 MW Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plant in Ibrahimpatnam.

The APgenco has proposed to construct a power plant at the Narla Tatarao Thermal Power Station (NTTPS) in Ibrahimpatnam. Most of the villagers are not aware of the impact of the construction of the plant in their village. The Pollution Control Board has to distribute sufficient copies of the report in Telugu so that the villagers become aware of the EIA.

So far, only 12 pages of the gist of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report has been put out in Telugu and distributed to some villagers.

The report in English runs into 159 pages. The villagers say giving truncated information to the local people in this manner is totally unacceptable and are demanding the officials to distribute more copies in Telugu before the public hearing to be held on March 11. The villagers say they have a right to get comprehensive information on the EIA.

The CPI Ibrahimpatnam mandal secretary and Aituc district secretary Mr, T. Tataiah, said the villagers do not know about the EIA report because the officials did not distribute sufficient copies.

He recalled that the Ibrahimapantam mandal is already badly affected by environmental pollution due to the existing of NTTPS.

Human Rights Forum district convener, Mr P. Amareswara Rao, demanded that the proposed public hearing slated to be held on March 11 be postponed because the villagers do now know about the EIA report. He demanded Telugu translation of the full text of the EIA report made available to the villagers, political parties and officials of the revenue department.