Andhra Pradesh High Court directs GVMC to stop digging, construction activity at ‘Erra Matti Dibbalu’ in Visakhapatnam
The Hindu
Andhra Pradesh High Court directs GVMC to stop digging, construction activity at ‘Erra Matti Dibbalu’ in Visakhapatnam. The directive comes after hearing a PIL plea seeking that allotment of land to a cooperative society for construction of houses and allowing excavation at the geo-heritage site be declared illegal.
The High Court of Andhra Pradesh on September 25, 2024, (Wednesday) directed the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) to stop all digging and construction works going on in the vicinity of the ‘Erra Matti Dibbalu’ (rare red sand dunes) in Bheemunipatnam mandal after hearing a PIL filed by Jana Sena Party (JSP) corporator P.L.V.N. Murthy and fishermen union leader T. Sankar Rao.
The petitioners prayed to the court that the allotment of land and allowing large-scale digging and excavation of the geo-heritage site and its adjoining CRZ area at Nerellavalasa village to the Bheemunipatnam Mutually Aided Co-Operative Building Society for construction of houses be declared as illegal.
They stated that about 200 acres of the land in question was situated in the CRZ-I area as per the CRZ regulations of 2019 and in the vicinity of the ‘Erra Matti Dibbalu’, which had archaeological significance, and close to INS Kalinga.
By filling the ‘Erra Matti Dibbalu’ and utilising 39,455 cubic metres of gravel from it, obviously without any permission, this natural formation of sand, believed to have taken shape 18,000 years ago, had been destroyed, Mr. Murthy argued, praying for a halt to the works.
Notices were issued by a Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur and Justice Ravi Cheemalapati, to the GVMC and other respondents, including the Geological Survey of India, Director of Mines & Geology, Government of Andhra Pradesh, AP State Coastal Zone Management Authority, Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Authority (VMRDA), and the AP Pollution Control Board (APPCB).
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