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Police guarding the District Collectorate in Visakhapatnam, where a public hearing was held on the Polavaram project on Monday. - C.V. Subrahmanyam

Visakhapatnam , Oct. 10

PUBLIC hearing on the proposed mega Indira Sagar (Polavaram) irrigation project across the Godavari here on Monday was reduced to a mere formality, with poor participation, and the whole exercise was finished in an hour.

The Human Rights Forum (HRF), which had raised several objections to the project, abstained, but later submitted a petition to the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board.

Objecting to the manner in which the public hearing was conducted, Mr V.S. Krishna, Secretary of HRF, said the project would affect Girijans in the districts of East Godavari, West Godavari and Khammam and there would be a huge impact on the environment of the zone.

"Those affected by the project, the Girijans, do not have any idea of what lies in store for them and what kind of impact the project will have on their lives and no attempt has been made by the Government to educate the public. To hold a public hearing in this manner is merely farcical," he said.

The details of the resettlement and rehabilitation plan, the environment management plan and the cost-benefit analysis should have made available to the people likely to be affected by the project, the NGOs, environmental activists and others, he said. But without such an exercise the public hearing would be reduced to a mere formality, he added.

The project would submerge 276 villages, displace lakhs of people (most of them Girijans) and damage the eco system, he said.

"Therefore, it is highly inappropriate on the part of the Government to conduct the public hearing in such a manner and we are left with no option but to stay away from the absurd exercise," he said.

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