A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court led by Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and comprising Justice R. Raghunandan Rao on November 29 adjourned the Rushikonda case to December 27 following a submission made by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) that a five-member expert committee would assess the extent of violations that had taken place in the construction of the A.P. Tourism Development Corporation’s (APTDC) luxury tourist retreat in the first week of December.
The committee will have K. Gowrappan, adviser to Chennai-based H2O Engineering and Technologies, as its Chairman. It comprises Manik Mahapatra, scientist in the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (Chennai), D. Sowmya, Central Pollution Control Board scientist from Chennai, P. Suresh Babu, scientist of MoEF&CC, Vijayawada sub-office, and CPWD (Visakhapatnam) Executive Engineer as members.
It may be noted that during the previous hearing of PIL pleas filed by Visakhapatnam East MLA Velagapudi Ramakrishna Babu and and Jana Sena Party corporation in Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation P.V.L.N. Murthy Yadav against the violations of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms and other relevant laws in the process of the construction of the tourist retreat, the High Court had directed the MoEF&CC to take an appropriate decision within three weeks on the constructions undertaken by the APTDC on the ecologically sensitive hillock, by considering the report filed by an expert committee nominated by the court.
The High Court had also asked the MoEF&CC to examine whether the violations claimed by the State government to be “minor” warranted cancellation or withdrawal of the clearance granted to it on May 19, 2021, and initiation of any penal action under the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986.
The APTDC was in the meantime permitted to get the constructions done, but in strict compliance with the Supreme Court directions dated June 1, 2022.
