Former Andhra Pradesh Information Commissioner P. Vijaya Babu slammed the state government on Monday, for alleged encroachments on the banks of the river Krishna.
Babu, who is also the founder of Better Andhra Pradesh (BAP), accused government officials of being aware of these encroachments, and asked them to respect the law and verdicts of the courts.
Speaking to mediapersons at Vijayawada, he said that the gross violation of the rules and regulations were resulting in pollution of the river.
He also alleged that the contamination level of the river was high, but the government was supplying the same water to the people of Krishna and Guntur districts.
He claimed that this would cause an adverse affect on public health in the state.
“If one walks along the Krishna Karakatta, no proper drainage system is found. So, where are the effluents going? Obviously into the river. So, people of Vijayawada, Guntur and neighbouring places are consuming polluted water. Despite chlorination, there is no way to determine that all the bacteria in those treated water have been eliminated,” TNIE quoted him as saying.
He said that the government had gone back on its promise of removing illegal constructions along the river bank.
"The CM himself got a building built against the River Conservancy Act as his official residence. The Act specifies that no structure should be built within 500 meters from the river course. On the river bank in Krishna district, there are 18 buildings and on the side of Guntur district there are 48 buildings. Water Resources Minister D. Umamaheswara Rao who visited the illegal structures promised action and issued notices to all the owners in 2015 but there was no follow up,” he added.
He demanded that the buildings be vacated, and said that the CM could not get away by releasing a Government Order, as they could not amend the Constitution and the law.
Citing the river conservation act, he said that there shouldn't be any construction within 500 metres of the river.
Referring to recent guidelines issued by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), he said that Naidu violated the law.