New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday refused to order a stay on the controversial Indira Sagar Polavaram project and asked the state governments of Odisha and Chhattisgarh to seek information they required for conducting public hearing from the Centre.
A three-judge bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur, Deepak Gupta and S Abdul Nazeer refrained from giving the stop work order and said in oral observation that it will take time for the construction of the proposed wall alongside the river.
“The wall will not come up in a month. We will hear you in January,” the bench said.
The observation came after the counsel for Odisha had argued that Andhra Pradesh is constructing a 60 km long and 100 meter wide wall along the river and pleaded the court to give stop work order to the project.
It is to be mentioned here that since Justice Madan B Lokur is retiring in December, the Polavaram matter will be heard by a new bench in January 2019.
During the hearing, the counsel for the Centre made submission that the process of conducting public hearing is manifested with the state governments, ‘let them hold the public hearing.’
Following the Centre’s argument, Justice Lokur said, “They (states) say they can’t conduct unless you disclose everything to them. They (states) are saying they want whole information regarding the change in project.”
The counsel for Chhattisgarh submitted that there is a need to conduct a survey on how much land is going to be submerged.
The bench asked Chhattisgarh and Odisha that if Centre shares information ‘are you ready to conduct hearing?’ The state governments’ have replied affirmatively.
The apex court had asked the Union government to furnish the information to Odisha and Chhattisgarh for completing the process of public hearing.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had asked the Centre to file an affidavit mentioning parameters to conduct public hearing in both the states. However, the Centre had in its affidavit expressed its inability to conduct public hearing in both states.
