Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday sought the Planning Commission not to grant revised investment clearance to the multipurpose Polavaram Irrigation Project across river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh.
“As the matter is sub judice in the apex court, it will be prudent to wait till the judgment comes as the project parameters and estimates may change,” Patnaik told Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
The Chief Minister in a letter to Ahluwalia pointed out that various clearances given to Polavaram– Indira Sagar Project were either in violation of the Godavari Water Dispute Tribunal (GWDT) Award or not conforming to the national standards.
Highlighting that the Polavarm project was given various clearances in breach of the norms, Patnaik said that the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) clearances to the project were given by the Central Water Commission without examining whether the project is in accordance with the GWDT.
Stating that the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had granted the environmental clearance to the Polavaram project on October 15, 2005, Patnaik said that the embankments were not part of the proposal cleared by the appraisal committee of the MoEF.
Besides, he said the scope of the Polavaram project had been changed as the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) had given Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) clearance with proposed embankments on the Saberi and Sileru rivers in order to avoid submergence on Odisha. “The stipulations given by the MoTA cannot be adhered to if embankments are constructed as per proposal of Andhra Pradesh as the same would violate the national standards of the BIS guide lines,” the Chief Minister said.
Taking exception to the final forest clearance given to the project on July 28, 2010, Patnaik said, “The stipulations of forest clearance given by the MoEF cannot be complied with by the Government of Andhra Pradesh if BIS Code norms are to be adhered to.”
Earlier, the Chief Minister, while meeting the Union Water Resources Minister Haris Rawat in March last, had pointed out a number of critical and controversial issues pending disposal relating to the Polavaram, including reservoir operation schedule, placement of embankments, submersion of forest land, displacement of tribal population and incorrect backwater computation and had suggested not to allow execution of the project till the conflicting issues were resolved through mutual consultations.
Giving details of the legal issues, Patnaik in his letter said that the Odisha Government had filed a suit in the Supreme Court on October 9, 2007 to declare the environmental clearance of the MoEF dated October 25, 2005 and also the R&R clearance given by the MoTA as null and void.
Referring to submergence of large scale tribal areas in Odisha, he said no public hearing was conducted in the affected Malkangiri district. Instead, the public hearing was conducted in the Khamamam district of Andhra Pradesh, he said.
Patnaik said the environmental clearance to the project was set aside by the National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA) on December 19, 2007, which had instead directed to conduct public hearing in affected areas of Odisha and Chhatisgarah.
Though the Andhra High Court had suspended the order of NEAA on petition of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the Odisha Pollution Control Board and the Forest and Environment Department had filed counter before the AP High Court. Besides, the Odisha Government and the Chhatisgarah Government had filed transfer petition before the Supreme Court which accepted the petitions, he said.
The Chief Minister stated that the Odisha Government had already filed a series of applications in the Supreme Court against the TAC and forest clearances to the project. Besides, Odisha has also filed an interim application in the apex court not to declare the Polavaram project as a national project and for stay of final forest clearance approval, he asserted.