GVMC refuses water to Jindal alumina refinery

GVMC refuses water to Jindal alumina refinery

Our Bureau, Hindu Business Line - http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/07/04/stories/2007070452472100.htm

3rd July 2007

Visakhapatnam, The Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) council at its council meeting here on Tuesday passed a resolution refusing to part with 8 mgd (million gallons a day) of water to the proposed alumina refinery by the Jindal group in the S.Kota mandal of Vizianagaram district.

It remains to be seen how and from where the State Government will provide water to the proposed refinery by the Jindals, which is mired in controversy, as all the political parties except the Congress, and the citizens' groups and voluntary organisations such as Samata are opposing bauxite mining in the Visakhapatnam district and the proposed refinery of the Jindal group. Noisy scenes and heated arguments were witnessed at the general body meeting of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation on Tuesday, as the opposition parties, and even some Congress corporators, raised the issue of allocating 8 mgd of water to the Jindal refinery. Mr M.V.S Sarma, of the CPM, and several others questioned how the corporation officials and the State Government could unilaterally decide to allocate water to the Jindal refinery when there was a huge demand-supply gap in the GVMC limits and the corporation was not in a position to bridge it.

He said, "The scheme to divert 5 tmc ft of Godavari waters was taken up during the Telugu Desam regime and it had then been decided to give half of the water to the industries such as the Steel plant, the NTPC Simhadri power plant and others and the remaining half was given to the GVMC to meet the drinking water needs of its citizens. When there is no surplus with the GVMC, how can water be allocated to the refinery without the consent of the council?"

He said the GVMC was having 51 per cent stake and the remaining by Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation in the Visakhapatnam Industrial Water Supply Company.