Plea to declare land acquisition for Cheyyur power project illegal.

A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the High Court seeking to declare that the proceedings for identification of land and land acquisition for the 4000-MW Ultra Mega Power Project and the captive port at Cheyyur in Kancheepuram district as illegal.

The petitioner, K. Saravanan of Ururkuppam, Besant Nagar, said the government was currently acquiring lands for the power project and the captive port at Cheyyur. The lands being acquired were not the ones selected for the project.

In the case of the captive port, land acquisition was being done at a site that was expressly rejected in favour of a different location that was found more suitable. As regards the power plant, lands in survey numbers that were not even part of the site stated to be required were being acquired. The site chosen for the power plant was not visited by the site selection committee of the Central Electricity Authority during its visit in 2006. The port site was rejected by a multi-departmental site selection team that included members of the Directorate of Environment and the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.

Coal-fired thermal power plants were 'Red' category industries because of their polluting nature. As a result, strict environmental safeguards were to be enforced after ensuring that they were located in an appropriate setting.


THE HINDU