Vizag Ports Magic Trick

Please first read this news item which appeared today 3 Dec, by clicking on this link:
Vizag to become major hub for port activity


Vizag Port Trust's Magic Trick
Great magicians are experts in diversion. Accompanied by drum rolls, they direct your attention to something exciting and as you watch they perform their tricks behind smoke screens and curtains. This is what the port trust seems to be doing in Vizag.

After years of complaints regarding pollution they say that they are cleaning up their act by installing a few mechanical coal handlers in the outer harbour. They hand out press notes and make statements saying that all the coal dust problems are solved. No one asks them and they don't want to say about where the coal is being stored! The major problem has been their archaic storage yards from where coal dust spreads all over the old city and sometimes all the way to Chinna Waltair and Gnyanapuram. What do they plan to do about that?

North and West migration - attack from Bheemunipatnam side as well
A large proportion of Vizag population was forced to leave the original Vizag near the Port Trust and move North and West to avoid pollution. Now, the scary part is that after killing off original "One Town" Vizag with coal dust they want to now attack us from the North as well. The news is that they are setting up a 20 million ton handling port near Bheemunipatnam!

The port will tell us that great and wonderful consultants are designing the new port and that it is very safe for every one. In this connection let me point out three facts:

1. The consultants for the present port are Rotterdam Maritime Group and TCS. In their report comprising 1.19 Lakh words only 431 referred to the environment. A thumping 0.31%!

2. Of 352 page business plan only 1 page (0.28%) covered environmental issues!!

3. In VPT's mission statement the word "environment" does not occur even once!

Vizagites must be pretty gullible if we believe that VPT and Gangavaram Ports give a damn about us. They just want to expand, expand, expand like some power crazed emperor. The fact is that the Ministry handling ports is taking decisions without giving a damn about the local population.
Will we protest? Will we even care? Or are we just suicaidal?

Please also click on this link to read more:
http://hatangadi.blogspot.in/2012/06/vizag-gangavaram-port-expansions-spell.html

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