Bhubaneswar: Strongly opposing the Polavaram irrigation project in Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the stoppage of construction activities of the project until all pending issues were resolved.
“It is unfortunate that the construction of the project is going on at a rapid pace despite pendency of the matter in the Supreme Court,” Naveen has written to Modi.
If the multi-purpose project is allowed to be completed before the resolution of all pending issues, it will cause permanent injury to the interests of Orissa and its people, Naveen said.
Claiming that the project doesn’t qualify for ‘national project’ status, the Chief Minister said, “The project was taken up by the Andhra Pradesh government unilaterally much before the Central Water Commission (CWC) clearance, based on plans/designs in violation of the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal (GWDT) award, and hence not agreed to by Chhattisgarh and Orissa.”
Even, the project work was on without even holding a public hearing in Orissa, a mandatory requirement for getting environmental clearance, he pointed out.
The issue of public hearing is now pending in the SC. In 2007, the state government had filed an original suit in the apex court against construction of the project and challenging various clearances given to it.
The Chief Minister said that Orissa residents will face several problems due to the project, including submergence of tribal land, flooding of fertile agricultural land and mass displacement of villagers.
According to Naveen, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has issued the abeyance on ‘stop work order’ thrice– January 1, 2014, June 23, 2015 and August 12, 2016—without conducting any public hearing by the project authority in the affected areas in the territory of Orissa.
“The Polavaram project can be reformulated as per the GWDT award without causing large-scale submergence in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and Chhattisgarh, taking into consideration projects operating in the command area of Polavaram, like the Pattiseema project and others,” he added.
PNN
