The Times of India            05.12.2010

Civic body's plantation claim goes dry

LUDHIANA: Tall claims made by the municipal corporation to maintain greenery in the city have fallen flat as central verges, roadside green belts and roundabouts are lying in a shambles. MC had claimed to have undertaken massive plantation drive but due to their carelessness, most of the saplings have gone dry while others have stunted growth.

Sources said the authorities had reportedly planted around 26,462 saplings in in July, August and September but without any proper planning, proving to be a wasteful expenditure. The civic body planted saplings of long trees under electricity wires and these could not grow well. Now again, the authorities were waiting for February and March for another plantation drive. But it would not serve the purpose unless the officials look after these well.

The employees did not care for watering the plants regularly and there were hardly any arrangements for pruning bushes. The MC authorities were leasing out green belts and central verges to advertisers for displaying their works, who in turn were responsible for maintaining the green belts. But the agencies failed to render their services. Therefore, MC officials had decided to charge Rs 1.5 lakh from the agencies as compensation for appointing labour to maintain greenery. Though, the agencies gave their consent, they were yet to start the payment.

MC landscaping officer Surinder Kumar said there was lack of adequate infrastructure and manpower with MC's horticulture department. So, it became difficult for maintaining the greenery. He added that he had sent a letter to the higher authorities for increasing the number of water tanks and gardeners in the department.

The Hindu      03.12.2010

‘Nellore a dumping yard for polluting thermal plants'

VISAKHAPATNAM: Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore district seems to have become the State's dumping yard for intensely polluting coal-based thermal plants. This was the finding of a four-member Human Rights Forum (HRF) team that visited several villages in the Muthukur mandal recently and interacted with farmers, fishermen and agricultural labourers in and around the villages of Nellathur, Musunuruvaripalem, Painampuram, Devaradibba ST Colony and Nellathurupalem.

The HRF has demanded a thorough cumulative environmental appraisal of all the coal-based thermal projects that are coming up along the coast in Muthukur and Chillakur mandals of Nellore district and called for putting on hold these projects till a comprehensive and integrated environmental appraisal on the impact of these projects on land, livelihoods, ecology, water bodies, the sea and health of people and vegetation is done .

“It is shocking that so many coal-based plants with such a staggering capacity have been accorded clearances by concerned authorities. We hear that the cumulative coal-based capacity of these plants at the moment is a whopping 24,540 MW and there are several other projects in the pipeline. . This is a recipe for a human and ecological disaster in the area,” HRF State general secretary V.S. Krishna said.

Generating electricity on this scale would involve burning of about four lakh tonnes of coal every day and the spewing of 1.45 lakh tonnes per day of toxic ash into the environs. Given the nature of coal combustion, significant amounts of sulphur, zinc, mercury and other dangerous elements will be released into the environment. Moreover, running of all these plants will involve drawal of 79,00,000 cubic meters of water, mostly from the sea and its pumping back at higher temperatures, he said.

He alleged that the ongoing construction by some of the projects in and around Nellathur and Painampuram has already resulted in a steep drop in fish and prawn catch for the Yanadis, who eke out a living by fishing in the Buckingham Canal and local water bodies. There is a lot of apprehension in the area that the ash ponds that will come up will have serious ill-effect on human health, farming and the groundwater table, the HRF leader said.