New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) will Tuesday hear a petition filed by Odisha challenging Andhra Pradesh government’s move to construct controversial Indirasagar Polavaram dam project on Godavari river.
A three-judge bench of the apex court comprising Justices NV Ramana, Sanjiv Khanna and Krishna Murari will hear the petition seeking ban on the construction and operation of Polavaram dam project in Andhra Pradesh.
The SC will also hear the petitions filed by RELA, an NGO, the states of Chhattisgarh and Telangana opposing the Polavaram project along with Odisha’s petition.
Earlier, a bench of apex court comprising Chief Justice SA Bobde, Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice Sanjiv Khanna had ordered for listing of Polavaram matter post winter vacations for directions after a special mentioning by senior counsel Gopal Subramanium who pleaded for early hearing of the matter December 14, 2019.
Significantly, the Supreme Court had adjourned the matter July 9 after hearing a plea filed by state of Odisha against Union government’s decision to keep ‘stop work’ order to controversial Indira Sagar Polavaram project in abeyance.
The counsel appearing for Odisha had opposed the extension given to the Polavaram project by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The state counsel had pleaded in the court to take up the interim application filed against the Union government’s decision of keeping ‘stop-work’ order in abeyance.
However, the counsel appearing for AP had submitted to the court that he needed time to go through the case as he had taken the case a few days ago. He pleaded in the court to give him six weeks time. The bench had decided to take up the matter after four weeks but the matter was not heard.
It is to be mentioned here that Odisha has filed an original suit in the Supreme Court in 2011 against the AP government’s decision to build multipurpose polavaram project on Godavari River citing that the project will lead to submergence of huge area in the state and many tribal people will lose their homes and land. During the hearings in the court, Odisha has alleged that process of environment clearance to the project has not been followed. It informed the court that public hearing was not conducted in the affected areas before granting environment clearance to the project.
Odisha demanded a ban on the construction of Polavaram project.
