The Hindu        21.03.2013 

Villagers protesting against dumping of garbage arrested

Villagers’ protest against shifting of Anakapalle
municipality’s garbage dumping yard took a serious turn on Wednesday
afternoon when 20 villagers and others supporting them were taken into
custody at Achayyapeta under Sundarayyapeta Panchayat, a few kilometres
from Anakapalle.

Even as the police took the men into
custody, women of the village continued their dharna and the
municipality’s tractor was not allowed to proceed.

The
villagers intensified their protest from Tuesday when they gheraoed
Municipal Commissioner S. Muralidhara Rao and stopped the municipal
vehicles from entering the area marked for the dumping yard. The protest
continued on Wednesday and the police took away 20 villagers.

Secretary
of the AP Vyavasaya Vrittidarula Union P.S. Ajay Kumar and CPI(M)
district leader Balakrishna were held outside the office of Deputy
Superintendent of Police V.S.R. Murthy after they explained to him the
order issued by a Division Bench of the High Court, in response to a
petition filed by villagers around Machilipatnam, Ongole and Bhimavaram
on shifting of dumping yards of these municipalities to their villages,
saying that no municipality or Nagarapalika can dump its garbage outside
its municipal limits and that no Collector or the Chief Commissioner of
Land Acquisition should allot land for municipal dumping yard in
villages outside the municipal limits.

The gram
panchayat did not give its consent to locate the dumping yard in the
village nor has the AP Pollution Control Board given permission to the
dumping yard, said the villagers.

Collector V.
Sheshadri, when contacted, said the land was handed over to the
municipality in 2007 and village Sarpanch K. Lakshmi, on behalf of the
villagers secured a stay order from the High Court in 2008.

When
the stay was vacated next year, the villagers filed an appeal with the
Chief Justice who after due consideration dismissed it in November 2011,
and asked the Municipal Commissioner and the Collector to give a report
in four weeks. The Municipal Commissioner submitted a report in April
2012 saying that the dumping yard was one kilometre away from the main
village and the court also accepted the report.

The
municipality decided to go ahead with shifting the dumping yard to the
village after taking the opinion of the Government Pleader.

Mr. Sheshadri said measures like digging pits to deposit the garbage to avoid inconvenience to the people should be taken.