A Dossier on Visakhapatnam
Says livelihood of local fisher community will be adversely effected
Vizag Beach, May 27, 2010
The Forum for Better Visakha (FBV) on Thursday expressed concern over the APMDC 's proposal to entrust beach sand mining to private firms in over 68,000 hectares along the east coast of Andhra Pradesh including Visakhapatnam that has more than 10,000 hectares in Visakhapatnam district alone. In a letter to the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh, the convenor of FBV EAS Sarma stated that the sand mining would cause great disturbance to the delicately balanced ecology of the Andhra Pradesh coast and lead to a great loss to the valuable marine resources.
EAS Sarma said that it would also adversely affect the lives and the livelihood of the local fishing communities and consequently, the lives of the other population along the coast. He further said that the entry of private companies in the sand mining projects along the coast will directly endanger the security of the coast. He pointed out that it was unfortunate that the State Government and the APMDC should take up such a proposal without ever consulting the local fishing communities and gram sabhas when these projects directly affect their lives.
FBV Convenor Sarma pointed out that the Ministry of Environment and Forest had announced its intention to advise the Department of Mines, New Delhi and the State Governments not to encourage sand mining in view of its adverse ecological consequences and asked the Minister to advise the State Government not to proceed further with the proposal.
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