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March 31 is D-Day for Kolleru drive
The Central Empowered Committee (CEC), appointed by the Supreme Court to monitor environmental issues in the country, has directed the state government to remove all the encroachments on Kolleru lake by March 31.
The directive leaves no room for the government to retreat from its ongoing operation to remove the aquaculture farms that have nibbled up the lake and reduced it to a fraction of its original extent.
The government launched the operation in a blaze of publicity but it soon got mired in counter-pressure from aquafarmers, many of them belonging to the big two parties in the state.
The committee, which conducted a public hearing on Kolleru at Jubilee Hall on Tuesday, heard the views of various groups and individuals affected by Operation Kolleru.
Rejecting the farmers' pleas to halt the drive, it directed the state government to press on with and complete it by the end of March.
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