HYDERABAD: The Human Rights Forum has urged the government to immediately revoke the lease granted to one J Lakshmana Rao for mining laterite in an extent of 121 hectares near Bhamidika village of Nathavaram mandal in Visakhapatnam district.The HRF demanded cancellation of the public hearing on laterite mining scheduled to be held on November 17 at Erakannapalem village. In a press release here on Friday, HRF state general secretary VS Krishna said that if the government did not cancel the public hearing it would be a mockery of the environmental clearance regime. A four-member HRF team visited six villages in Sarugudu panchayat on Wednesday and spoke with the local girijans belonging to Bagata and Konda Dora communities. The region falls in the Vth Schedule and the area in and around the mine lease zone is a reserve forest. The proposed project and the notification of the public hearing are in violation of statutory rights meant for protection of girijans and the Vth Schedule region, it said.The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report put out by the project proponent report is a sham, the HRF said. Assessments trotted out in the EIA report are highly dubious, riddled with a number of inconsistencies and misrepresentations. For instance, it is stated in the EIA report that the proposed project site is devoid of any natural vegetation. This is a brazen lie, Krishna said. The whole area stretching from Sundarakota village in the north-east through Bhamidika village and Siripuram to the south and Lodaddi village to the west in the neighbouring East Godavari district is abundantly green with natural forest.Besides, there are many perennial streams in the area. The claim that the proposed project’s impact on ecology will be insignificant is absolutely untenable, Krishna observed.Moreover, the proposed mining violates a number of Constitutional safeguards meant for protection and strengthening of forest ecology and livelihood of girijans. These include Forest Conservation Act, Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, the Supreme Court’s Samatha judgment and the Forest Rights Act, 2006, Krishna contended. Holding a public hearing in the face of such brazen statutory violations and glaring anomalies would be a meaningless exercise, the press note said. The mining activity would uproot the Girijans living in the area cultivating different crops and the mining lease given to a person violated all laws and Acts pertaining to Scheduled Area and Girijans, it said
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