In a setback to the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh, the state high court on Thursday ordered a central survey on the alleged excavation of the Rushikonda hills for the construction of guest houses by the AP Tourism Development Corporation.
The high court gave the orders to this effect, after hearing the arguments over a batch of petitions filed by the opposition parties and environmentalists alleging that the government was resorting to indiscriminate digging of Rushikonda hills beyond permissible limits.
The high court directed that the Union environment and forest ministry depute a team of experts to conduct a detailed survey as to what extent the Rushikonda hills were dug up beyond the permissible limits.
It also asked the Central team to find out the extent of constructions being built on the hills, beyond what was permitted.
It directed that the team submit the details of the survey to the high court at the earliest and posted the case for the next hearing on December 14.
Interestingly, the state government also admitted that the constructions were taken up in more area than what was originally permitted and the excavations were more than what was originally proposed.
The opposition has been alleging that the Rushikonda hill was being dug up indiscriminately to build the camp office for chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The government was not allowing the opposition party leaders and even the media persons to go anywhere near the constructions.
