HRF asks A.P.govt. to desist from acquiring huge chunk of land for BPCL project

HRF urges Andhra Pradesh to halt land acquisition for BPCL project, citing devastating impact on livelihoods and environment.

The Human Rights Forum (HRF) urged the Andhra Pradesh government to desist from acquiring a large extent of land along the coast in Ulavapadu mandal of Kandukur division in Nellore district for the purpose of a project of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL).

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, HRF members said that pursuing this project would result in massive devastation of livelihoods in the area.

A fact-finding team of the HRF, Rashtra Chenatha Jana Samakhya (RCJS) and Matsyakara Sangam visited the area on February 24 in the wake of media reports that the government was planning to set up an oil refinery-cum-petrochemical complex of BPCL which would have an estimated capacity of 9 million metric tonne per annum (mmtpa) in an extent of 6,000 acres. It was also reported that the government was planning to acquire an additional 10,000 acres for expansion of the project.

The activists spoke with residents of eight villages in the three panchayats of Karedu, Chakicherla and Peddapattapupalem in Ulavapadu mandal. All villages are located on a strip of land between the sea and NH-16 with the Manneru river as the boundary to the north and the Ramayapatnam port to the south.

All the three mandals are inhabited by farmers, farm labour and fishers and members of the Yanadi Scheduled Tribe community, said V.S. Krishna, HRF AP&TG Coordination Committee member.

Understandably, the locals we met were firmly against the project. They stated emphatically that a petrochemical project in the area with the attendant land acquisition and inevitable pollution will disrupt their economic life irredeemably and would destroy their means of livelihood comprehensively. In several villages there was anger and fear among the people that they would also be physically displaced from the are, he said.

Locals were also viewing with trepidation occasional surveys being done by the government including the deployment of drones. They stated that they were not informed in any manner about the project by the government and the whole thing was shrouded in secrecy, said Y. Rajesh, HRF AP State general secretary.