Notwithstanding Odisha’s strong protest, the Centre has assured the Andhra Pradesh Government that the controversial Polavaram project would be completed by next year.
The assurance was given by none other than Union Minister for Water Resources Nitin Gadkari to whom Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had last week approached to stop the project till completion of the pending case in the Supreme Court.
Gadkari has given assurance to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu over phone, sources said. Naidu is presently on a visit to South Korea. He has also given a similar assurance to a delegation of Andhra Pradesh Congress leaders.
The Union Minister’s assurance comes nearly a week after Naidu saying that he would hand over the project in the wake of the Centre recently writing to the Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary for stalling forthwith the tenders called by the State Government."If they (Centre) want, we will stop the process. If they continue with this type of stand, I will greet them with folded hands and hand over the project," Naidu had told reporters on November 30.
On November 29, CM Naveen Patnaik had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him not to allow the construction of the Polavaram project until all the pending issues are settled in the Supreme Court.
Patnaik, in his letter, also had expressed his deep concern over the sacrifice of Odisha's interests in the project without addressing its legitimate concerns. The Chief Minister's letter said the project works are going on without conducting any public hearing in Odisha, which is a mandatory requirement for getting any environmental clearance.
Patnaik had said that there has been a clear violation in obtaining environmental and forest clearance by the Environment and Forest Ministry, resettlement and rehabilitation clearance by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Technical Advisory Committee clearance by the Central Water Commission (CWC).