Coal news and updates

The coal dust pollution, generated as a result of coal imports by Visakhapatnam Port Trust (VPT), has raised heat at the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Mini Mahanadu here on Sunday.

Party MLAs raised issues pertaining to their respective constituencies and wanted the meet to adopt resolutions on them so that they to be taken up at the State-level Mahanadu to be held in Tirupati.

Visakhapatnam South MLA Vasupalli Ganesh Kumar, who is also president of the TDP Urban District Unit, proposed diversion of coal imports from VPT to the Gangavaram Port to avoid the problem of coal dust pollution in the Old Town area. He wanted the meeting to adopt a resolution in this regard.

Party representatives from Gajuwaka area showed placards against it as it would result in pollution in the industrial belt. Gajuwaka MLA Palla Srinivasa Rao expressed his opposition to the shifting of coal cargo to Gangavaram Port. He also sought a dedicated water pipeline to Visakhapatnam Steel Plant to address the water scarcity during summer months.

Pendurthy MLA Bandaru Satyanarayana Murthy said shifting of coal cargo to Gangavaram, even Mutyalapalem or some other place near the city would result in the coal dust pollution problem to the residents of those places and it would be better to unload such cargo away from human settlements.

Visakhapatnam West MLA P.G.V.R. Naidu expressed the view that pollution was not confined to the Old Town alone and industries in the bowl area like the HPCL and those in the Pharma City were generating a lot of pollution. Visakhapatnam has the maximum number of industries in the State and but it was only having a Zonal Office of the AP Pollution Control Board (APPCB), which was unable to take the erring industries to task.

Mr. Naidu wanted the meeting to adopt a resolution seeking setting up the State office of the APPCB in Visakhapatnam and appointment of an Officer of the rank of Principal Secretary to effectively deal with the CEOs of the polluting industries.

He also wanted the NAD flyover to be included in the Metro Rail Project as it was a major traffic bottleneck in the city.

Anakapalle MLA Peela Govind Satyanarayana wanted filling up of nominated posts in VUDA, Endowments and other departments to rejuvenate the cadre.

Former MLAs S.A. Rahaman and Chintalapudi Venkataramaiah and party leaders M. Venkata Rao, Erothi Maria Das and Zaheer Ahmed were among those who attended.

Source: The Hindu