A stream of industrial effluents flows into the Kazipally lake in Patancheru.
The Environmental Engineer
of AP Pollution Control Board put out a notification in several papers on March
9th 2005, informing the readers that on April 11th, 12th
and 13th 2005, Environmental Public Hearings would be held in the
premises of the Mandal Revenue Office, Jinnaram, Medak district for various
industrial units as per the MoEF’s notifications of 27/1/1994 and 10/4/1997 and
GoI Circular dated 14/5/2002. These public hearings were for the purpose of
obtaining Ex-Post Facto Environmental Clearance for a set of Industrial Units
in Jinnaram, IDA Bollaram, IDA Khazipally, IDA Gaddapotharam, Gummadidala, IDA
Bonthapally etc.
The Advertisement informed
that the units are seeking Ex-Post Facto Environmental Clearance from the MoEF
and had furnished Executive Summary and Environmental Impact Assessment Reports
on a cluster basis. It further sought the suggestions, views, comments and
objections related to the aforesaid industries from the public/interested
group/affected group within 30 days from the date of publication of the
notification, which could be communicated to the APPCB, saying that such groups
can also participate in the public hearing. The notification further went on to
list the places where the EIAs and Executive Summaries were kept open for
public access. The locations mentioned here included the respective Gram
Panchayat offices of the IDA villages mentioned above and the Mandal Revenue
Offices.
However, the true colors of
such public hearings came to the fore (yet again) with the local authorities
trying to suppress the voices of the public in a variety of ways, including
brutal violence.
The Public
hearing to grant 'post-facto' environmental clearances to industries operating
in violation of 'clearance procedures' and have been polluting for over 10
years without impunity, in itself is a farce that is self-defeating, clearly to
fast-track long pending environmental clearances of these industries, with no
intention of taking the grievances of villagers on board.
By the day of the first
Public Hearing on April 11th 2005, several villages had not been
able to lay their hands on the EIAs and the Executive Summaries. The MRO
Office, Patancheru, which is supposed to have the copies of the reports for
public access as per the newspaper notification, told villagers who approached
it on 4th and 5th of April for the reports that they are
not in possession of the report. Villagers also approached the District
Collector’s office in Sangareddy which refused to part with the reports.
Two of the Sarpanches
brought this up publicly in the Public Hearing soon after it began at 10.30 am.
They had also written formal complaints about this lack of information.
The Panel included Mr Bheem
Nayak, Joint Collector, Medak district (who was presiding over the Public
Hearing); Mr Nagaraj Rao, RDO, Medak district; Vishweswara Rao, Joint Chief
Environment Engineer, APPCB, K Radhakrishnan, CFO, CSE; K Balareddy, MPP and V
Kista Gowda, Zilla Parishad member.
The local communities were
opposed to the fact that this Public Hearing could be conducted without any
informed opinion from them, given that the reports were not made available to
them beforehand. The PCB did not make any attempt to ensure that these reports
indeed reached the groups, affected/interested and the public, after putting
out its notification in March.
It is only through other
sources that some of the people attending the meeting got to obtain the
reports. The illegality of the Public Hearing, to the extent that it was being
held without the EIA reports being made available, was highlighted time and
again in the meeting. Greenpeace India’s campaigner, Mr Bidhan Chandra Singh
brought this up a few times in the morning.
Further, when people were
presenting their case, there was no recording of minutes apparent and it was
only after the public put pressure on the Panel, the minutes began to be
recorded.
In the post-lunch session,
the Joint Collector gave time for the industrialists present to speak and
present their case. This angered the public and the environmentalists who were
dismayed at the fact that the one formal, legal opportunity available to the
public to voice their views, concerns and objections was being sabotaged by the
Joint Collector by allowing the polluters to present their case. As it was,
there was much discounting of the contamination that people were putting up
with for decades now. The public did not allow the industrialists to speak,
expectably.
Goondaism takes over:
At this point of time, some
goons of the industry, including a representative of Matrix Industry who the
Greenpeace Campaigner recognises, picked up an argument with the Greenpeace
Campaigner, Mr Bidhan Chandra Singh. Soon, they started assaulting him and a
representative of the industry lifted an iron chair with an intention to strike
Mr Singh. Another representative of the industry shouted “kill him”.
In an effort to save the
environmental activist who has been working with them, the local community
members reacted in an agitated mode and started disrupting the proceedings.
Soon, a riot broke out and the police stepped in. The local people began
pelting stones at the police as soon as their lathi charge began. The police
acted brutally and dealt with the agitation of the local people in a violent
manner.
Throughout this period,
Bidhan as well as other environmentalists tried to calm the local people.
The Police Misbehave:
Later in the day, when
Bidhan Chandra Singh went to the Jinnaram Police Station to register an FIR
(First Information Report) about being physically abused by representatives of
the industry, there were already two other activists detained by the police in
the Station premises. The media representatives from Tehelka, Down To Earth and
TV9 wanted to know from the Circle Inspector, Mr Narsimhulu why these activists
were detained, when he started getting aggressive, pushed, shoved and assaulted
the media persons in the police station.
He also decided to detain
Mr Bidhan Chandra Singh and a research student Mr Vijay and got his police to
shove them into the detention chamber. Both outside and inside the detention
chamber at least ten police officers, including the Circle Inspector beat up
Bidhan and Vijay, upon the behest of another police official. They slapped and
kicked the activists, and Mr Vijay got kicked several times by the police when
he was seated on the floor.
It was only late in the
night at around 10.15 pm that the activists were able to lodge their FIRs
against the physical assault during the Public Hearing, after the intervention
of the Additional SP. The media representatives lodged a complaint against the
misbehaviour of the police in the Jinnaram Police Station.
Can these be termed Public Hearings?
This whole set of events,
starting from the lack of availability of crucial reports to the public before
an informed opinion/view/objection could be expressed during the Public
Hearing, this undermining of local constitutional institutions like Gram
Panchayats, the biased processes run within the Public Hearing, the lack of an
appropriate, legally-required Panel, the absence of recording of minutes are
clearly the result of the great pressure that the industries are under, to
obtained the requisite Clearances by the 18th of April. Due
processes and procedures were ready to be sacrificed to protect the interests
of the industries, at the expense of the communities in the area.
Further, the violence that
was allowed to erupt during the Public Hearing with the industry
representatives beating up the environmentalist activist is completely
unacceptable and strongly condemned.
Finally, the brutal and
violent behaviour of the police in Jinnaram Police Station, Medak district puts
to shame the entire law and order machinery of the state. Instead of
registering the complaint of the activists who have been hurt, the police chose
to detain them and kick and slap them.
In this context, Greenpeace
India demands that:
- The Public Hearing
be held in the true spirit once again, after all reports are made
available to the public and the local institutions like Gram Panchayats,
in a manner that they comprehend, and the current Public Hearings be
declared invalid;
- The Joint Collector
be suspended for violations of procedures and processes of the Public
Hearing
- The Police Officials
in Jinnaram Police Station be suspended and punished for their violent and
brutal assaults on activists and media representatives