According to her, the commission was appointed following Chaitanya Sravanthi's sustained agitation against pollution by VPT. "We filed a petition with the Lokayukta on May 8 against VPT. The Lokayukta appointed a one-man commission after neither the VPT management nor AP Pollution Control Board officials turned up for the hearing on June 13," she said.

"Scores of people are dying because of the pollution caused by VPT and many others are suffering from various lung diseases. Because of port pollution, around 60 people have died last year alone and hundreds of locals have developed various ailments," she alleged.

According to Rahman, the VPT has failed to take proper measures to control pollution levels despite scores of representations and agitations by locals. "As per the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, 60 micro grams per metre cube of pollution is permissible in the air. But the levels in One Town area hover between an alarming 80 to 110 and have only been increasing year by year. VPT has been showing false statistics," Dr Rehman alleged.

"VPT has been saying that it has been sprinkling the water in the port area to avoid dust particles from spreading in the area. The port has even been misleading the Union environment ministry by giving assurances that it will plant 4.3 lakh saplings in the next five years. But so far, it has not planted even one lakh saplings," she alleged.

She warned the port management that if they did not take any measures to control pollution levels, her organization would intensify its agitations. Chaitanya Sravanti took the help of AU civil engineering department's environmental engineering faculty Prof Dr S Bala Prasad in measuring the air pollution levels in select areas of One Town and submitted the report to the Lokayukta, she added.